How Eating Disorders Affect the Neurobiology of the Brain
Eating Disorders & Mental Health
Our physical and mental health, relationships, and day-to-day life are all affected and challenged by disordered eating habits’ pervasive nature. When someone suffers from an eating disorder, the risk of health consequences, such as brain damage, could occur. Disrupted eating behaviors negatively affect adequate nutrition absorption; thus, the brain does not get the nutrients it needs to function properly. This is especially concerning in adolescents, as brain development occurs through early adulthood – meaning that significant periods of growth could be disrupted.
Managing Diabetes and an Eating Disorder
Having a medical condition such as diabetes can be complicated with an eating disorder. Due to the complexity of this type of situation, The Emily Program dietitians help clients navigate and plan to mitigate problems.
There are two factors that can overwhelm people who struggle with diabetes and eating disorders. For one, it can become compensatory to overdose insulin as a means of “purging.” In addition, it can be hard to manage the diabetic diet itself because it has many guidelines that may feel like food rules to someone working on neutralizing food judgments.
The Need for Evidence-Based Care
Re-posted from the Cleveland Center for Eating Disorders (CCED) blog archives and updated with additional Emily Program client thoughts. CCED and The Emily Program partnered in 2014. Contributions by Sarah Emerman,
A recent article by Dr. Russell Marx, The National Eating Disorder Association’s chief science officer, discussed evidence-based treatment. The article noted Harriet Brown’s New York Times piece, which we have discussed in previous blogs, concerning why surprisingly few patients get evidence-based care. Dr. Marx discusses the NICE guidelines, which is the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence in the United Kingdom. What’s particularly exciting about this article was that it noted the growing evidence for the efficacy of FBT and general family-based interventions for clients with anorexia. The NICE guidelines are of significance specifically in the United Kingdom but are utilized worldwide in understanding evidence basis for eating disorder treatment. In the NICE guidelines, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy is noted as a treatment well conducted with clinical studies for binge eating disorder but is not included as a proven treatment for anorexia or bulimia. These guidelines were last completed in 2011 and will be reviewed again in 2014. It is our hope that recent studies on DBT will show the effectiveness of this treatment for other eating disorder diagnoses.
4 Reasons Why You May Not Be Getting Evidence-Based Care
Re-posted from the Cleveland Center for Eating Disorders (CCED) blog archives and updated with additional Emily Program client thoughts. CCED and The Emily Program partnered in 2014. Contributions by Sarah Emerman.
Every year our understanding of the brain and eating disorders improves. However, there are still a limited number of truly evidence-based treatment for our patients. The search for evidence-based care may feel overwhelming and sometimes futile. Unfortunately, moving in the direction of care that is not evidence-based reduces the likelihood that clients will achieve recovery. There are several reasons why providers may offer care not based on the literature or published data: