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Diagnostics of anorexia and bulimia

Nowadays psychic disorders are described on the bases of exact criteria. One of the most well known standard classifications of mental health is the American DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) (Túry, 2005).

The diagnostic criteria of anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa can be read in table 7, and table 8

  1.  Refuse minimal body weight maintenance correlating with age and height. For example, body weight is 15% lower that the expected one, and when there is no weight gain in cases of teenagers. This attitude also leads to 15% weight loss.
  2.  Intensive fear of gaining weight even if sufferers are slim.
  3.  The excessive effect of body weight and body image or denying the danger of low body weight.
  4.  No menses for three succeeding months

Table 7 The DSM-IV criteria of anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa (Túry, 2005, p. 15).

 

A. Recurring binge eating. The features of this disorder are:

    1.  The devoured quantity of foods is much larger than most people could eat them within a given period and similar situations.
    2. Losing control over eating

B. Compensating weight gain with induced vomiting, laxatives, fasting, enema or excessive trainings

C. Both binge eating and compensational behaviours occur twice a week through at least 3 months.

D. The impact of self-evaluation over body image and weight.

E. Disorders do not exclusively occur in case of anorexia nervosa episodes.

 

Table 8 The DSM-IV criteria of bulimia nervosa (Túry, 2005, p. 16.).

Several methods are used to screen eating disorders. One of them is questionnaires, for example, Fallon-Rozin test (1958). Issues of questionnaires are based on the diagnostic criteria. Out of them the following tests  are mentioned: EDI (Eating Disorder Inventory) and SCOFF (Sick, Control, One stone, Fat, Food) tests. Questionnaires, such as BCDS (Bulimia Cognitive Distortional Scale), ANIS (Anorexia Nervosa self-evaluation), BITE (Bulimia Self-report test) (Resch, 1997).