Eating Disorders Case Study

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Eating Disorders are a complex, perplexing and multifactorial psychiatric disorder. Eating disorders (EDs) are influenced by biological, psychological and sociocultural factors. EDs can be broken down into three major groups: anorexia nervosa (AN), bulimia nervosa (BN) and binge eating disorder (BED). Each group has different diagnostic criteria, clinical features, prevalence and prognoses. Specifically relevant to my topic, AN, is characterized by the maintenance of dangerously low body weight, fear of gain weight and seeming indifference to the seriousness of the illness1. Diagnostic criteria via DSM- 5 diagnostic criteria include: refusal to maintain body weight at or above a minimally normal weight for age and height, intense fear of gaining …show more content…
I was 18 years old when I was hospitalized, the summer after my senior year of high school. Secondary to AN, I was dying of heart failure and had surgery to remove organs that my body was trying to use for fuel, all the while I did not know that I was sick. The hardest part of treatment was the recognition that I was indeed sick. My mother also struggled with AN when she was young. She then married my father and had four girls. Out of my three sisters, I am the only one to have had a ED. The fact that both my mother and I struggled with the same disease poses the question of whether this disease was genetically passed down to me or was this just chance? Is there a genetic component to ED’s? I am strong evidence for this claim. Furthermore, will I continue the tread and pass this life-threatening disease on to my own daughter someday? Is this a cyclical cycle? Or can we figure out what this genetic component is to save the lives of millions and stop the transmission of this …show more content…
I am planning on assessing females from cohort studies including: individual, twin, familial or adoption studies. These females can be of any age and race but need to have been formally diagnosed with AN via DSM 5 criteria. Majority of the research I have found is of Western cultures. I will be using Western countries as the geological location given the consistently of sociocultural views. There is an large amount of existing research on this population. Existing research modifies for age and race with different factors in the statistically analysis of the data. The major age range in the research is from 12-24 years old while other studies leave age out completely. Similarly, with race, some studies comment on it while others do not. The socioeconomic status is addressed in certain articles, specifically when addressing the parents of the population. More importantly in regard to socioeconomic status, are the environmental influences, shared and non-shared, mentioned in current research. Given the complexity and multifactorial causes of AN, these environmental influences are commented at large. Environmental factors also include: family, sociocultural, customs, lifestyles, values, personality types and attitudes. This gene–environment interaction complex is defined as where, ‘a person’s genes may influence how sensitive he or she is to the effects of the
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