Hans Steiner and Martine F. Flament: Fast facts: eating disorders

Excerpt

The concept of the “Fast Facts” series is an excellent one, providing in this case a brief and yet comprehensive summary of diagnostic, epidemiologic, and etiologic information related to eating disorders, as well as information on the medical management, treatment, course, and prognosis of these disorders. This particular book has been written at a rather challenging time, in that the field is on the cusp of changes to the diagnostic criteria for eating disorders in the upcoming Diagnostic and Statistical Manual-5, which will have quite significant implications for many of the issues reviewed in the book. The authors have chosen to present their information based on the DSM IV, although they do briefly review the anticipated changes to the diagnostic criteria. As a result, they have primarily focused on anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa throughout the book, with little attention given to the remaining eating disorder NOS categories even though they acknowledge that in most clinical settings, this group comprises about 50 % or more of patients. Binge eating disorder and night eating syndrome are only briefly described, along with feeding disorders. …