Mental Health Nursing: Eating Disorder Case Study

Running head: MENTAL HEALTH NURSING
MENTAL HEALTH NURSING (EATING DISORDER)
Name of the student
Name of the University
Author note

1MENTAL HEALTH NURSING
Introduction
In recent world, being in a good shape and physically attractive determines the holistic
fitness level to attain which millions of younger individuals are suffering from several disorders
or illness, which is known as eating disorder (Colton et al., 2013). This is characterized by
persisting irregular diet, unscientific eating habits and concerning stress and distress due to such
strange lifestyle habits. As per Brooks et al. (2012) eating disorder can be the reason of excess
and irregular inadequate eating habit which can affect the wellbeing of individuals affected with
it. Ferguson et al. (2014) determines that eating disorders are of three types such as Anorexia
Nervosa, Binge Eating Disorder and the Bulimia Nervosa, of which the ability to harm ranges
for both males and females. Lock and Le Grange (2015) also mentions that such disorder
emerges during the teenage of life and it requires appropriate nursing interventions. As per the
data of World Health Organization present in the research of Stice, Marti & Rohde, (2013), more
than 30% of people around the world are currently suffering from such disorder. In this case
study discussion, the case of Charlie (19) and her eating disorder related condition will be
discussed and her concerns such as eating disorder, stress, depression, low self-esteem and the
pressure of responsibilities will be discussed. As a daughter of successful parents and her ever so
high self-esteemed in studies., she feels stressed as well as she also thinks that her weight makes
her unattractive. Hence she isolated herself from her flat mates and spends hours at washroom
after eating minimal food and laxatives, resulted in loss of 10kgsin last three months. Hence, the
primary goal of this assignment is to provide the details about biopsychosocial factors
influencing the development of eating disorder, and depression and it will be discussed with
appropriate use of nursing management and interventions. Finally, the ethical inferencerequired
for the patient condition will also be discussed in this assignment.

2MENTAL HEALTH NURSING
Analysis- biopsychosocial
As the ‘world mentality’ is shifting sharply from ‘being alright with the body to being fit
is the only motif of the body’, scientists and healthcare physicians are unable to detect the
primary reason for emergence of eating disorder throughout the world. However, Dakanalis et al.
(2015) mentions that eating disorder can properly be described by the relation between two
factors psychosomatic and psychiatric and due to this a relationship between body mind and
brain created which creates all the confusion in the brain of the patient regarding the weight and
appearance compared to others. Hence the biopsychosocial factor should be used to understand
the effect of the condition on patient, determine the best intervention regardless of it being
biological social or psychological and manage the condition. in the case study, Charlie’s friend
Jo mentioned that from last four months, Charlie has separated herself from her friends and do
not go out to have dinner with them (Udo et al., 2013). It was also mentioned that she thinks she
is too much overweight and need to lose much more weight so that she can become attractive
and smart. This event determined her mental stress, hopelessness and less confidence and self-
esteem that make her feel inferior to others. Further, in the case study, it was also mentioned that
she has lots of pressure for studies and performed really well in her educational career. However
she now feels that she need to become much more focused and successful like her parents
(Rodgers, Paxton & McLean, 2014). This also determines the pressure which she feels on her
shoulder prior to make any action. This is one of the primary reason for her depression and
eating disorder related condition as Winkler et al. (2014) has mentioned that people who suffer
from mental stress or pressure generally end up losing their appetite level and hence, they need
to take support of laxatives and other components. It was evident from the case study as Charlie

3MENTAL HEALTH NURSING
used to eat less food and after that smaller amount of food she used to go to the washroom and
spend hours as well as used to take laxatives daily (Udo et al., 2013).
Besides this, the bio-psychosocial context of disease should be inclusive of the social
effect as society has a major impact on the human activities. Specifically, in teen age, it is
evident from the research by Gearhardt et al. (2012) that teenagers are much more prone to social
and communicable comments and due to this they develop negative thinking and perceptions
about their action and develop suicidal ideations. In his case of Charlie, she had several negative
thoughts about herself in her mind, she felt she is worthless as she was not smart like her brother,
she was unable to make her parents proud or she was not at all attractive so that society can
praise her smartness and beauty (Sarafino & Smith, 2014). These above mentioned events and
thinking made her negative perception in her own mind and she lost all her confidence and self-
esteem which is important to live a determined life. Further, she eventually developed her
depression level due to which as per Winkler et al. (2014), she lost her appetite and was forced to
take laxatives for her heath conditions. Further, her biological analysis should involve the after
effects of her eating disorder due to which she lost her 10 kg of weight in last 4 months, her
menstrual cycle was badly affected and she started developing pale skin and dry brittle hair. This
analysis was important as due to such appearance she started believing on her thinking and her
physical appearance made her confident that she is not appropriate and worthless to her smart
and successful family due to such health condition (Stice, Marti & Rohde, 2013).
Analysis- nursing management
Role of nursing interventions and nursing professionals are primary in the care process of
patients affected with eating disorder and associated health conditions as this disorder affects the
human health in every aspect of physical and mental health (Klainin-Yobas, Cho & Creedy,