• Question: How many different types of eating disorders are there and how can they be caused?

    Asked by anon-290044 to Marjorie, Luan, Harry, Ellen, Abi on 24 Mar 2021.
    • Photo: anon

      anon answered on 24 Mar 2021:

      Hi,
      There are 6 main disorders:
      – Anorexia Nervosa.
      – Binge Eating Disorder.
      – Other Specified Feeding and Eating Disorders (OSFED)
      – Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID)
      – Rumination Disorder.
      – Unspecified Feeding or Eating Disorder (UFED)
      How they are caused varies between disorders and between people and is not fully known. As psychologists we believe that genes (so family history of an eating disorder), biochemical factors that effect appetite and environmental and societal interact and can cause symptoms of eating disorders.
      Some other really interesting research points towards a higher rate of anorexia in those with autism! There is also a bit of a myth that eating disorders are largely a Western issue, but it is actually quite prevalent across all cultures.

    • Photo: Ellen Smith

      Ellen Smith answered on 25 Mar 2021:

      This isn’t my area of research so I don’t feel like I can answer this question properly. I did study eating disorders a little when I was at university and found it really interesting. There’s also some researchers at my university who focus on eating disorders, particularly in males as there’s not much research into that. You can find some more information about different types of eating disorders here: https://www.beateatingdisorders.org.uk/types and this page has a lot of information about possible causes of eating disorders: https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/types-of-mental-health-problems/eating-problems/causes-of-eating-problems/?gclid=CjwKCAjw6fCCBhBNEiwAem5SO1AKUe-MVnTNXJi5dpeK1lORuwME4bgXqYUgX_XTvOFSuDN3dNCr5BoCykIQAvD_BwE

    • Photo: Harry Piper

      Harry Piper answered on 25 Mar 2021:

      I’ve never studied this topic so I defer to the other psychologists who have answered here, but I would perhaps add that some conditions change over time and when I say that I mean the criteria set to meet them, and through things like the DSM-5 that can be used to make diagnoses, this can change what is considered disordered with some things being replaced by new terminology or new things being added.

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