Mental Health

Eating Disorders

Facts about eating disorders:

Each year millions of people in the United States are affected by serious and sometimes life-threatening eating disorders. More than 90 percent of those afflicted are adolescent and young adult women. It is suggested that the reason women in this age group are particularly vulnerable to eating disorders is because of their tendency to go on strict diets to achieve an "ideal" figure. Researchers have found that such stringent dieting can play a key role in triggering eating disorders.

The consequences of eating disorders can be severe -- one in ten cases of anorexia nervosa leads to death from starvation, cardiac arrest, other medical complications, or suicide.

Increasing awareness of the dangers of eating disorders -- sparked by medical studies and extensive media coverage of the illness -- has led many people to seek help. Nevertheless, some people with eating disorders refuse to admit they have a problem and refuse treatment.

What are the possible causes of eating disorders?

In trying to understand the causes of eating disorders, health professionals study:

genetic and environmental factors

biochemistry

What are the possible causes of eating disorders?

Anorexia Nervosa

Bulimia Nervosa

Binge Eating Disorder

Treatment of Eating Disorders

This page was last updated on: February 5, 2008.

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