Types of eating disorder

There are broadly four types of eating disorder, below is an overview but please click on a disorder to read more detailed information.

Anorexia Nervosa is divided into two subtypes. However, the common feature of both is maintenance of body weight 15% below what is considered normal for the individual’s age and height. People with the disorder also experience an intense fear of gaining weight, restriction of food intake, excessive exercising, a disturbance or distortion in the way the body is viewed and an over influence on the importance of weight or shape on self-evaluation. Another feature of anorexia is an absence of menstrual periods in postmenarcheal women.

There are two sub-types of anorexia: binge eating/purging type (vomiting, laxative use or diuretics) and restricting type.

Bulimia Nervosa typically involves individuals attempting to control their food intake but not managing to do this successfully leading to episodes of binge eating followed by vomiting and/or laxative use. Some sufferers also use diuretics. People with the condition exercise excessively and are preoccupied with concerns about weight and shape. Patients with the condition are typically a normal weight.

Binge Eating Disorder is described typically as frequent episodes of uncontrollable binge eating, but without the compensatory behaviours associated with Bulimia. Often patients who suffer from binge eating difficulties will be overweight or even morbidly overweight, which seriously affects their physical health

EDNOS or Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified is a broad category of patients who may have some but not all diagnostic features of Anorexia or Bulimia, a kind of “sub-clinical” category. An example may be someone who has infrequent episodes of binge eating and vomiting but has serious over-valued concerned about their weight and shape.