Bulimia nervosa

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Bulimia nervosa is a disease. It can be described as voluntary starvation, which means people want to starve themselves. People who have it, usually exercise too much, and eat too little, because they want to lose weight. They feel (or they have been told) that they are too fat.

When they are hungry, they will still eat, but they will do anything not to put on weight. These measures include:

  • Vomiting
  • Using medical drugs in the wrong way (that is: misusing them).
  • Exercising too much.

Often those points are combined.

Contents

[edit] The five DSM-IV critera

Someone who matches these six criteria has bulimia:[1] [2]

  1. the sick person can't control himself and eats large amounts, the sick peron eat more food than a normal person eats in one meal.
  2. after eating the bulimic person wants to get rid of the calories. He/she throws up the food or uses laxatives, diuretics or does sport
  3. such behavior happens at least twice per week for three months
  4. the sick person has an obsession with how her/his body looks and wants to look thin
  5. the bulimic person does not have Anorexia nervosa. (Some anorectics sometimes do bulimic things like eat a lot and throw up for a while. Also, some people go from being anorexic to being bulimic.)
  6. the patient has a normal weight or is too heavy.

Please note that this list is only a guide, and many doctors will diagnose bulimia nervosa if only one is not present.

[edit] Mortality risk

Eating disorders have one of the highest death rates of all mental illnesses. The Eating Disorders Association (UK) estimates a 10% mortality rate.[3] An 18% mortality rate has been suggested for Anorexia Nervosa.[4] In addition to the risk of suicide, “death can occur after severe bingeing in bulimia nervosa as well”.[5] For perspective, these death rates are higher than those of some forms of cancer.

[edit] At-risk groups

Risk factors for bulimia are similar to those of other eating disorders, such as anorexia nervosa:

  • Women
  • Those of age 10 through to 25
  • Athletes
  • Gay males
  • People who are active in dancing, modeling or gymnastics
  • Students who have a lot of work
  • Those who have suffered Psycological trauma in their lifetime such as child abuse and sexual abuse
  • People who have lots of money
  • The highly intelligent and/or high-achievers.[6]
  • Perfectionists

The majority of bulimic patients are young females from 10 to 25 years old, although the disorder can occur in people of all ages and both sexes.

There can be a popular assumption that eating disorders are ‘female diseases’, but the illnesses do not tell the difference between the genders, and males can also suffer from them: “even if only 5% of sufferers are male, hundreds of thousands of young men are affected…Studies have been conducted within the homosexual subculture, and have also focused on males who suffer from anorexia and bulimia. These point to a direct connection between gender identity conflict and eating disorder in males but not in females."[7] This does not indicate that only gender-conflicted males suffer from eating disorders, but there is “ a tendency for eating disorders in males to go unrecognised or undiagnosed, due to reluctance among males to seek treatment for these stereotypically female conditions." [8]

[edit] See also

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