Models of Abnormality

1. The eating disorders affect women between which ages?

• The eating disorders affect some females starting as young as age 6 and all the way up until age 39. According to the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence, eating disorders are a major cause of physical and psychosocial impairment in young women, affecting at least one in twenty women between the ages of 18 and 30.

2. What are the three recognized eating disorders?

• The three recognized eating disorders are anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and atypical.

3. What are the shared commonalities between the three eating disorders?

• The three eating disorders typically involve extreme and persistent dieting, self-induced vomiting or laxative misuse, binge eating, extremely motivated exercising and in some cases marked weight loss. Common features that are associated with these disorders are depression, social withdrawal, perfectionism and low self-esteem. The disorders tend to run a chronic course and are notoriously difficult to treat. Relapse is common.

4. Why would this treatment be favored by managed care?

• The “enhanced” form of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT-E) would be favored by manage care because it builds on and improves the current leading treatment for bulimia nervosa. CBT-E is the first treatment to be shown to be suitable for the majority of cases of eating disorders. It would be a single treatment that could be effective at treating the majority of bulimia nervosa and anorexia nervosa cases without needing the patient to be admitted into a hospital.

5. What did the researchers find one year later after patients received CBT-E?

• The researchers found that the majority of patients responded well and rapidly to the two forms of CBT-E and that the changes were sustained over the following year, the time at which relapse is most likely to occur. Approximately two-thirds of those who completed treatment made a complete and stable response with many of...