Guidelines for detecting and managing eating disorders have been updated and released by the Academy for Eating Disorders, a USA-based professional association of international eating disorders specialists. The guidelines are designed to help primary care clinicians recognize signs and symptoms, and to initiate evidence-based assessment and care for patients with eating disorders.
The guidelines cover anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and other eating disorders not otherwise specified, including binge eating disorder. Important facts outline the prevalence beyond girls and women to boys and men; children, adolescents and adults; people from all ethnicities and socioeconomic backgrounds; and a variety of body shapes, weights and sizes.
The ideal standard of care includes a multidisciplinary team approach which can attend to medical, psychological and nutritional needs based on the evidence and be appropriate to a person’s developmental stage. Especially in the case of children and adolescents, timely interventions also involve the participation of family members. The resource is endorsed by the Society of Adolescent Medicine.
See “Eating Disorders – Critical Points for Early Recognition and Medical Risk Management in the Care of Individuals with Eating Disorders” atwww.aedweb.org.