Eating Disorder - Classification

Classification

• Anorexia nervosa (AN), characterized by refusal to maintain a healthy body weight, an obsessive fear of gaining weight, and an unrealistic perception of current body weight. However, some patients can suffer from Anorexia nervosa unconsciously. These patients are classified under "atypical eating disorders". Anorexia can cause menstruation to stop, and often leads to bone loss, loss of skin integrity, etc. It greatly stresses the heart, increasing the risk of heart attacks and related heart problems. The risk of death is greatly increased in individuals with this disease.
• Bulimia nervosa (BN), characterized by recurrent binge eating followed by compensatory behaviors such as purging (self-induced vomiting, excessive use of laxatives/diuretics, or excessive exercise). Fasting and over exercise may also be used as a method of purging following a binge.
• Binge eating disorder (BED) or 'compulsive overeating', characterized by binge eating, without compensatory behavior. This type of eating disorder is even more common than Bulimia or anorexia. This disorder does not have a category of people in which it can develop. In fact, this disorder can develop in a range of ages and is unbiased to classes.
• Compulsive overeating, (COE) characteristic of binge eating disorder, in which people tend to eat more than necessary resulting in more stress. This is mainly caused by 'binge eating disorder'.
• Purging disorder, characterized by recurrent purging to control weight or shape in the absence of binge eating episodes.
• Rumination, characterized by involving the repeated painless regurgitation of food following a meal which is then either re-chewed and re-swallowed, or discarded.
• Diabulimia, characterized by the deliberate manipulation of insulin levels by diabetics in an effort to control their weight.
• Food maintenance, characterized by a set of aberrant eating behaviors of children in foster care.
• Eating disorders not otherwise specified (EDNOS) can refer to a number of disorders. It can refer to a female individual who suffers from anorexia but still has her period, someone who may be at a "healthy weight", but who has anorexic thought patterns and behaviors, it can mean the sufferer equally participates in some anorexic as well as bulimic behaviors (sometimes referred to as purge-type anorexia), or to any combination of eating disorder behaviors which do not directly put them in a separate category.
• Pica, characterized by a compulsive craving for eating, chewing or licking non-food items or foods containing no nutrition. These can include such things as chalk, paper, plaster, paint chips, baking soda, starch, glue, rust, ice, coffee grounds, and cigarette ashes. These individuals cannot distinguish a difference between food and non food items.
• Night eating syndrome, characterized by morning anorexia, evening polyphagia (abnormally increased appetite for consumption of food (frequently associated with insomnia, and injury to the hypothalamus).
• Orthorexia nervosa, a term used by Steven Bratman to characterize an obsession with a "pure" diet, in which people develop an obsession with avoiding unhealthy foods to the point where it interferes with a person's life.
• Drunkorexia, commonly characterized by purposely restricting food intake in order to reserve food calories for alcoholic calories, exercising excessively in order to burn calories consumed from drinking, and over-drinking alcohols in order to purge previously consumed food.
• Pregorexia, characterized by extreme dieting and over-exercising in order to control pregnancy weight gain. Undernutrition during pregnancy is associated with low birth weight, coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke, hypertension, cardiovascular disease risk, and depression.

Several of the above mentioned disorders, such as diabulimia, food maintenance syndrome and orthorexia nervosa, are not currently recognized as mental disorders in any of the medical manuals, such as the ICD-10 or the DSM-IV.