Psychotherapy for Anorexia Nervosa Essay -- Health Disorders Weight Lo

Psychotherapy for Anorexia Nervosa What is anorexia? Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder that consists of self-regulated food restriction in which the person strives for thinness and also involves distortion of the way the person sees his or her own body. An anorexic person weighs less than 85% of their ideal body weight. The prevalence of eating disorders is between .5-1% of women aged 15-40 and about 1/20 of this number occurs in men. Anorexia affects all aspects of an affected person's life including emotional health, physical health, and relationships with others (Shekter-Wolfson et al 5-6). A study completed in 1996 showed that anorexics also tend to possess traits that are obsessive in nature and carry heavy emotional reliance on other people (Herpertz-Dahlmann et al 461). Dependency, self-directed hostility, and assertiveness did not correlate highly with anorexia nervosa as assumed (Rogers and Petrie 138). In addition, anorexics tend to require constant hospitalization which incur personal and systematic costs (Shekter-Wolfs on et al 6-7). Methods of Clinical Assessment In order for a person to be diagnosed with anorexia nervosa, they must possess the two essential psychological symptoms of the drive for thinness and the body image distortion problem. According to the DSM-IV, anorexics are categorized into two categories, restricting and binge-eating/purging types. Another assessment device is the Eating Attitudes Test and the Eating Disorders Inventory. The evaluation of an affected person should be multidimensional and comprehensive because of the severity of this problem (Shekter-Wolfson et al 10). After this has taken place, a formal interview with the client is conducted. This interview consists... ...9: 101-105. Herpertz-Dahlmann, B., Wewetzer, C., Hennighausen, K., and Remschmidt, H. (1996). Outcome, Psychosocial Functioning, and Prognostic Factors in Adolescent Anorexia Nervosa as Determined by Prospective Follow-up Assessment. Journal of Youth and Adolescence. 25: 455-465. Rogers, Rebecca L., and Petrie, Trent A. (1996). Personality Correlates of Anorexic Symptomatology in Female Undergraduates. Journal of Counseling and Development. 75: 138-141. Shekter-Wolfson, Lorie F., Woodside, D. Blake, and Lackstrom, Jan D. (1997). Social Work Treatment of Anorexia and Bulimia: Guidelines for Practice. Research on Social Work Practice. 7: 5-20. White, Mark B. (1997). How Good is Family Therapy? A Reassessment. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy. 23: 93-94. Yager, Joel (1994). Psychosocial Treatments for Eating Disorders. Psychiatry. 57: 153-168.