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Binge Eating Disorder Most Common
Binge eating disorder is more common in American society than anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa, according to a study published in the Official Journal of the Society of Biological Psychiatry.
This is the first national study of eating disorders to be carried out in the United States.
Researchers at McLean Hospital (an affiliate of Harvard Medical School) conducted a 2-year survey in which over 9,000 people across the United States were asked about their mental health.
The lifetime prevalence estimates of eating disorders obtained from the study are as follows:
Women: anorexia nervosa - 0.9 %, bulimia nervosa - 1.5 %, binge eating disorder - 3.5 %
Men: anorexia nervosa - 0.3 %, bulimia nervosa - 0.5 %, binge eating disorder - 2.0 %
While anorexia and bulimia may be more widely recognised, it appears binge eating disorder is the most common eating disorder among men and women.
This is interesting, considering binge eating disorder currently only has a suggested diagnosis in the DSM-IV-TR (American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), rather than a definitive classification like anorexia and bulimia.
Binge eating disorder is when an individual engages in recurrent (at least twice weekly) binge eating episodes. A binge eating episode is classified by eating unusually large amounts of food in a short period of time, and is accompanied by feelings of distress and a loss of control.
Binge eating disorder is associated with obesity and the subsequent health effects of being overweight, such as diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease.
Perhaps the findings of the above research will provide more support for the inclusion of binge eating disorder as an official diagnosis in the DSM.
The Prevalence and Correlates of Eating Disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication. Biological Psychiatry, Volume 61, Issue 3, Pages 348-358 J. Hudson, E. Hiripi, H. Pope, Jr., R. Kessler