NSG3MHI: Mental Health and Illness Report on Eating Disorders

This report examines the multifaceted aspects of eating disorder recovery, encompassing assessments, treatments, and nursing interventions. It begins by outlining the diagnostic criteria for eating disorders such as Binge Eating Disorder, anorexia nervosa, and bulimia nervosa, emphasizing the assessment of changes in body mass indices, menstrual functions, psychiatric status, and clinical symptoms. The report then delves into the general treatment approaches, including psychological therapies like cognitive-behavioral therapy, family-based therapy, and group cognitive therapy, alongside nutritional education and medical interventions, such as antidepressant medications. Furthermore, it highlights crucial nursing interventions, such as supervising patients during meals, providing nutritional education, and engaging family members in therapeutic activities. The report references key studies and resources to support the discussions on the multifaceted approach to recovery.

Running head: MENTAL HEALTH AND ILLNESS
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Mental Health and Illness
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Institutional Affiliation

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Recovery assessment criteria for eating disorder recovery include the following;
Assessment of changes in their body mass indices: patients with Binge Eating
Disorder tend to consume large amounts of food within a short period of time. They are also
prone to restrictive behaviors including excessive exercise. As a result, these individuals gain
excess weight which leads to obesity. To assess the recovery of patients from Binge Eating
Disorder nurses can evaluate the changes in the patients' body masses after a treatment where
slight drops in body weight will signify recovery from the disease (Brown et al., 2018).
Evaluation of the patients’ menstrual functions: adult women with eating disorders
experience menstrual dysfunction like absence of menstrual periods. This is contributed by
factors such as disturbances in nutritional status together with metabolic disturbances. For
instance, according to (Ålgars et al., 2014) binge eating is associated with polycystic ovary
syndrome which causes irregularities in menstrual cycles due to its ability to affect energy
intake in women. Therefore, while assessing women recovering from Binge eating their
menstrual functions can be evaluated. Individuals showing a normal menstrual function
indicate the possibility that they are recovering.
Assessment of their psychiatric status: individuals with eating disorders such as
bulimia nervosa and anorexia nervosa are in many cases perfectionists and tend to have low
self-esteem. They have an intense fear of weight gain or becoming big in sizes. This exposes
them to a risk of life-threatening malnutrition as well as starvation. Additionally, many eating
disorders are linked to psychiatric problems including anxiety, drug and alcohol abuse, panic
among others. To assess the recovery of patients recovering from such disorders, nurses can
evaluate whether the patients are embracing the healthy habits and if they are able to forego
unhealthy ones (Surgenor & Maguire, 2013).

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Evaluation of patients’ clinical symptoms associated with eating disorders: clinical
symptoms associated with eating disorders include low body weight, panic disorder,
obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety among others. In assessing the recovery from eating
disorders, the nurses and other clinicians should evaluate whether the individual is, for
instance, able to manage the anxieties, increase weight, being able to associate with other
people without any fears among others. If the patient shows the expected normal changes,
then it can be concluded that they have recovered from the disease (Gisladottir et al., 2016).
Clinical questionnaires should be developed to determine the emotional and psychological
settings of recovering patients. Evaluation of such questionnaires helps in assessing the
recovery of the disease by the patients (Bardone-Cone, 2012).
The general treatment for eating disorders combines psychological therapy, nutritional
education and sometimes medical intervention.
Psychological therapy: this involves the use of trained personnel to evaluate an
abnormal condition such as a disease or disability hence helping the patient recover and
improve their abilities. Such therapies bring about a supportive and judgemental free
environment bringing mental healing to the patient. Among the psychotherapies used to treat
eating, disease condition are cognitive-behavioural therapy, family-based therapy, and group
cognitive therapy (Kass et al., 2013). In cognitive-behavioural therapies, the patient shares
with the trained psychologist the behaviours and feelings that stimulate their eating disorder.
It focuses on helping the patient recognize and change the behaviours causing the disorder. In
family-based therapies, family members aid in restoring healthy eating to the patient. Parents
and guardians learn how to help their children regain healthy eating habits. Group cognitive-
behavioural therapy involves a larger group of patients having similar eating disorders. The
patients meet and express their feelings and behaviours causing eating disorders to a
psychologist or a mental health professional who offers advice on behavioural change. The

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psychologist may give the patients homework like keeping their food patterns and identifying
causes driving them to unhealthy eating behaviours (Fairburn et al., 2013)
Offering nutritional education to the patients and caregivers: these are educational
strategies aimed at facilitating the adoption of better choices of food and important
behaviours that contribute to healthy feeding according to Wagner, 2012. Nutritional
education has three components; motivational component, actional component, and
environmental component. In the motivational component, the nutritionist and dietitians
create awareness on recommended healthy eating programs and address attitudes promoting
the eating disease to the patients. The action component aims at educating the patients on
appropriate actions to take through proper goal setting and cognitive self-regulation skills
required to maintain healthy eating patterns. In the third component, the educators educate
the patients on environmental settings that may allow them to achieve their intended goals in
the management of their disorders (Contento, 2011)
Medical intervention: in case the psychotherapy treatment mechanism fails to
completely treat the eating disorders medications can be applied to boost the efficacy of the
psychotherapy. In the treatment of anorexia nervosa, antidepressant medications can be
used(Marvanova & Gramith, 2018). In the treatment of binge eating disorder, stimulant
medications can be used to suppress the appetite. Anti-depressant diseases are also used to
lower obsessive thoughts as well as symptoms of depression. In both cases, the main goal of
the medications is not to completely treat the disorders but to complement the psychotherapy
and nutritional rehabilitation (Frank & Shott, 2016).
Nurses’ interventions include Supervision of patients during and after taking meals to
make sure that the patients take right quantity and quality of the food. Patients with eating
disorders may take such as anorexia nervosa may reduce their food intake to very low energy

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content which magnifies the extremes of the disease. Nurses should supervise the patients
while taking meals top ensure that such behaviours are avoided (Kells et al., 2016,). Another
intervention that can be applied by the nurses is nutritional education to patients and other
caregivers such as parents. Nurses should help eating-disordered patients to become aware of
their false thinking that hinder them from feeding on appropriate meals. Their focus should
be educating patients on the quality of the food in terms of energy content, mineral content,
protein content and a variety of diet considered healthy (Sharp et al., 2019). Also,
recommendations are given on how patients can change their behaviours and adopt proper
eating patterns. Nurses can as well engage family members in therapeutic activities such as
family therapy which are aimed at providing information to address unrealistic expectations
and other factors that may trigger severity of the disorders in patients (Surgenor & Maguire,
2013).

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References
Ålgars, M., Huang, L., Von Holle, A. F., Peat, C. M., Thornton, L., Lichtenstein, P., & Bulik,
C. M. (2014). Binge eating and menstrual dysfunction NIH Public Access. J Psychosom
Res, 76(1), 19–22.
Brown, K. L., LaRose, J. G., & Mezuk, B. (2018). The relationship between body mass
index, binge eating disorder, and suicidality. BMC Psychiatry, 18(1).
Contento, I. (2011). Review of nutrition education research in the Journal of nutrition
education and behavior, 1998 to 2007. Journal of Nutrition Education and
Behavior, 40(6), 331-340.
Fairburn, C. G., Cooper, Z., Doll, H. A., O'Connor, M. E., Palmer, R. L., & Dalle Grave, R.
(2013). Enhanced cognitive behaviour therapy for adults with anorexia nervosa: A UK–
Italy study. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 51(1), R2-R8.
Frank, G. K. W., & Shott, M. E. (2016). The Role of Psychotropic Medications in the
Management of Anorexia Nervosa: Rationale, Evidence, and Future Prospects. CNS
Drugs, 30(5), 419–442
Gisladottir, M., Treasure, J., & Svavarsdottir, E. K. (2016). Effectiveness of therapeutic
conversation intervention among caregivers of people with eating disorders: Quasi-
experimental design. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 26(5-6), 735-750.
Kass, A. E., Kolko, R. P., & Wilfley, D. E. (2013). Psychological treatments for eating
disorders. Current Opinion in Psychiatry, 26(6), 549-555.
Kells, M., Schubert-Bob, P., Nagle, K., Hitchko, L., O’Neil, K., Forbes, P., & McCabe, M.
(2016). Meal supervision during medical hospitalization for eating disorders. Clinical

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Nursing Research, 26(4), 525-537.
Marvanova, M., & Gramith, K. (2018). Role of antidepressants in the treatment of adults with
anorexia nervosa. Mental Health Clinician, 8(3), 127-137
Sharp, E., Curlewis, K., Martyn, K., & MacAninch, E. (2019). Eating disorders and
nutritional education taught well: The experience of medical
undergraduates. Postgraduate Medical Journal, 95(1119), 57-58.
Surgenor, L. J., & Maguire, S. (2013). Assessment of anorexia nervosa: An overview of
universal issues and contextual challenges. In Journal of Eating Disorders (Vol. 1, Issue
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Wagner, M. (2012). Nutrition education. Family & Community Health, 35(1), 86-87.