Abnormal Psychology: A Comparative Analysis of Eating Disorders

This essay delves into the realm of abnormal psychology, focusing on eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating disorder. It highlights the diagnostic criteria outlined in the DSM, emphasizing the role of factors like low body weight, fear of gaining weight, binge eating episodes, and compensatory behaviors. The essay also explores the prevalence of these disorders, noting that women are more likely to be affected, particularly in industrialized countries due to social and environmental influences. Furthermore, it contrasts binge eating disorder with bulimia nervosa, pointing out differences in purging behaviors and the populations most affected. The essay concludes by referencing relevant studies and research, providing a comprehensive overview of the causes, symptoms, and prevalence of these eating disorders.

Running Head: ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY
Abnormal psychology
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1Abnormal Psychology
1. Mental illness is referred to as wide collection of mental illnesses such as, depression,
eating disorders, anxiety, addictive behaviours and schizophrenia. To ensure the
uniformity of diagnosis for different mental health is maintained, diagnostic and statistical
manual of mental disorders (DSM) are used. Eating disorder is included in axis I of the
DSM ( (Lavender, et al., 2015).
Anorexia nervosa is an eating illness identified by an uncharacteristically low
body mass. Patient suffering from anorexia nervosa have extensive fear of gaining weight
and hence us extreme effort to maintain their weight which damages their physical as well
as mental health. They may go through starvation or use diuretics and laxatives to lose
their weight, which results to unhealthy life, extremely thin body structure and mental
illness. People suffering from anorexia have amenorrhea, extreme weight gaining fear and
disturbance in evaluating weight. There are several factors involved in anorexia such as,
some people have high risk of anorexia, perfectionism and sensitivity due to some genetic
changes. Physiological and environmental factors are also responsible for developing
anorexia (Zipfel, et al., 2015).
Bulimia Nervosa is an disorder identified by binge eating trailed by purging.
People suffering from bulimia eat a lot in frequent intervals. People suffering from this
disease have high risk of death because of cardiac arrest. Symptoms observed in people
suffering from Bulimia, recurrent binge eating, recurrent episodes of purging, inapt
compensatory behaviour and excessive attention on weight and shape. If the treatment is
delayed it can lead to destructive behaviour, kidney damage, digestive system
complications and can also lead to death. Factors responsible are past trauma, low
developed self-esteem, stressful transition and negative body image (Lavender, et al.,
2015).

2Abnormal Psychology
2. Eating disorder such as anorexia and bulimia are most prevalent in women than that of
men, women are 10 times more probable to affect by eating disorders as compared to
males. It is more common an adult women and men. Adult population are involved in
recurrent binge eating- 35% of the adult population is involved in abnormal eating
behaviour. Eating disorders are rare in non-western countries. From the evidence it can be
stated that eating disorders are more common in industrialized countries. In industrialized
countries, because of the environmental and social factors. Adult population are found to
have thin body, low body weight. They are influenced by model’s or actor’s physique and
hence follows different diet to lose calorie, which will hamper their mental and physical
health (Keski-Rahkonen & Mustelin, 2016).
3. Binge eating is referred to as recurrent periods of eating. Binge eating disorder is a severe
disorder. It is life-threatening disease characterized by recurrent chapters of eating large
quantity of food. People suffering from this disorder lose their control while eating and
experience shame and feeling of guilt later (Brownley, et al.,2017).
In binge eating disorder people usually binge but do not purge, but in bulimia
nervosa people purge after eating. More number of individual are effected by binge eating
disorder as compared to the Bulimia Nervosa. 20 – 30 in every 1000 young adult are
suffering from binge eating disorder whereas, 10-15 of every 1000 adults are suffering
from Bulimia Nervosa. Binge eating illness is mainly observed in early adults whereas,
bulimia is observed in adolescent and young adults (Cossrow, et al, 2016).

3Abnormal Psychology
References
Brownley, K. A., Berkman, N. D., Peat, C. M., Lohr, K. N., & Bulik, C. M. (2017). Binge-
Eating Disorder in Adults. Annals of internal medicine, 166(3), 231-232.
Cossrow, N., Pawaskar, M., Witt, E. A., Ming, E. E., Victor, T. W., Herman, B. K., ... &
Erder, M. H. (2016). Estimating the Prevalence of Binge Eating Disorder in a
Community Sample From the United States: Comparing DSM-IV-TR and DSM-5
Criteria. The Journal of clinical psychiatry, 77(8), e968-74.
Keski-Rahkonen, A., & Mustelin, L. (2016). Epidemiology of eating disorders in Europe:
prevalence, incidence, comorbidity, course, consequences, and risk factors. Current
opinion in psychiatry, 29(6), 340-345.
Lavender, J. M., Wonderlich, S. A., Engel, S. G., Gordon, K. H., Kaye, W. H., & Mitchell, J.
E. (2015). Dimensions of emotion dysregulation in anorexia nervosa and bulimia
nervosa: A conceptual review of the empirical literature. Clinical psychology review,
40, 111-122.
Zipfel, S., Giel, K. E., Bulik, C. M., Hay, P., & Schmidt, U. (2015). Anorexia nervosa:
aetiology, assessment, and treatment. The lancet psychiatry, 2(12), 1099-1111.