2809NRS Mental Health: Biopsychosocial Approach to Eating Disorders

This essay provides a detailed biopsychosocial assessment of an eating disorder, specifically anorexia nervosa, through the analysis of a case study involving a 19-year-old girl named Charlie. It identifies biological, psychological, and social factors contributing to the disorder, including genetic predispositions, neurobiological imbalances, and social pressures. The essay also discusses appropriate nursing management and interventions, such as refeeding protocols, addressing anxiety and disturbed body image, and setting realistic eating goals. Furthermore, it addresses ethical dilemmas in treating eating disorders, such as counselor competence and the implications of self-disclosure. The essay emphasizes the importance of a therapeutic relationship between nurses and patients and concludes by highlighting the increasing prevalence of eating disorders among young women and the need for comprehensive care.

Running head: BIOPSYCHOSOCIAL ASSESSMENT IN EATING DISORDER
Biopsychosocial assessment in eating disorder
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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The biopsychosocial approach deliberately thinks about natural, mental and social
variables and their internal cooperation in understanding the wellbeing and disease of the
body. The point of the essay is to identify the significance of a detailed biopsychosocial
evaluation to classify the factors that lead to the analysis of an eating disorder and the
implication of the nursing care management. The occurrence of the psychological disorders,
which are characterized by the abnormal eating habits, is known as the eating disorder. Risk
factors for the eating disorder involve a change in the biological and psychological behaviour
within the body. However, because of the idea of the ailment and the patient's craving to keep
the disease, a large number of the cases stay undiscovered. Nurses ought to be cautious when
administering to patients in every single caring sector. Nurses play a crucial role in eating-
disorder recovery through person-centred care and therapeutic relationship. Nurses are
essential in building up the establishments of improvement, particularly to the patients who
may not comprehend that they have a illness within them. However, there has been
impressive development in the principles on the eating disorder, with significant suggestion
for the moral and theoretical issues that enclose the decision-making capacity and the way of
examining the disease (Van Ommen et al., 2009)
Researches indicate that there is an increasing number of young women are suffering
from eating disorder, and now they are seeking help through medical or nursing management.
This case study discusses Charlie who is a 19-year-old girl. Charlie went out for dinner with
her friends, but slowly she separated herself from them and started to stay alone. She eats
very little and takes laxative throughout the day. Charlie was taken to the Eating Disorder
Unit in Brisbane. She felt hesitated to disclose about her food habits to the nurses and
eventually Charlie was admitted to the unit and was prescribed with multivitamin and
antidepressant. According to the case study, the patient have anorexia nervosa because the
symptoms which are expressed in the case study matches with anorexia nervosa. Anorexia

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nervosa has to types. They are purging type and restricting type. Restricting type is those type
of anorexia nervosa in which the person has not sometimes engaged in the splurge eating and
exclusion behaviour which is, self-prompted vomiting, high exercise or the mishandling of
the laxatives. 90% of people with anorexia are females. 15-19 years olds make up to 40%
anorexics. Extensive fear of weight gain and becoming fat are the two major problems with
the patients. The biopsychosocial factors comprise genetic changes, developmental changes,
neurobiological factors and social pressure on the patient. Hereditary components contribute
half of the change for the advancement of the dietary issue (Johnson, 2008). Imbalance of
serotonin causes the rise of the neurobiological factors. Social pressure from the families or
parent causes the increase of an eating disorder. The biopsychosocial model explains the
relationship between socio-cultural appearance pressures and adverse effect (socio-cultural
and psychological components) and eating concerns in the adolescent girl. Rapid hormonal
changes are associated with the increased risk of eating disorder. The characteristic varieties
in eating and hunger might aggravate to women who are battled with food. There is a
widespread endocrine disorder which involves hypothalamic pituitary gonadal axis. All the
stressful development phases of life place young women at increased risk of eating issues. In
addition to the physical transformations, these changes guide in clearly different common
roles and everyday schedules. At the point when the life is evolving quickly, dithering and
self- vulnerability, the human instinct to look something that exhibits a feeling of soundness
and control. An eating disorder can turn into the appropriate response, promising a young
lady that changing her body can change her life, comprehending ever one of the problems she
faces as she advances through the grown up improvement. Eating disorder includes anorexia
nervosa which naturally starts in the mid-adolescence with the beginning of nutritional
constraint that quickly gets out of manage in the later stages of life (Watson & Bulik, 2013).
The young women eating disorder come in the different, sizes, severities and shapes leads

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towards significant nutritional depletion with physical problems. The adult eating disorder
often falls into the partial syndrome categories (Birmingham & Treasure, 2010). This
circumstance makes it more challenging for the young women to self-analyse and seek
medical cure. The symptoms of many young females develop through time is primarily
restricting to anorexic behaviour. They have or may have begun to reduce eating and reach to
a standard or abnormal weight of the body. The patient ma acknowledge that she ate
something, while at the same time eating far not as much as her metabolic needs require, or
may trust she is no longer purging when she has submitted the misuse of laxative for
vomiting (Hildebrandt et al, 2012).
Nursing is the profession of science and caring together. It is a profession within a
healthcare sector, and it focuses on the care of individual, families and communities. Nurses
should provide high quality care, for that they need to practice within their professional
standard and ensures that their case is based upon the quality evidence. Having the
information and comprehension will empower attendants to screen the sustenance allow and
watch the potential dietary problems. Nursing treatment will depend on the individual’s
eating disorder symptoms (Tomey, (2009). Nurses will probably pass on a feeling of trust
when they speak with their young patients. Nursing management involves various
biopsychosocial assessment and interventions of the eating disorders. Refeeding is the most
critical intervention during the initial stage of the treatment. The nurses will face resistance to
the weight gain and many refusals to eat from the patients, and therefore they should monitor
and record all the intake of the food carefully. The refeeding protocol to the patient starts at
1500 calories a day and slowly it will be increased to 3500 calories per day (Gentile et al.,
2010). Two most common nursing diagnoses in anorexia nervosa are anxiety, and the other is
the disturbed body image. For the awareness problems, the nurses can encourage the patients
to keep a journal. Most patients use complaints that they are fat or they feel bloated to replace

4BIOPSYCHOSOCIAL ASSESSMENT IN EATING DISORDER
a negative emotion such as guilt or anger. The nurses should help their patients to identify the
feelings and asked them to write about the nature of the fat perception and to list all the
possible underlying emotions and troublesome situations next to this description. The nurses
should conduct an eating aptitude test with their respective patient, and the eating aptitude
test will contain all the necessary incidents that the patient faces on a day-to-day event. The
nurses should not attempt to change the distorted body image by merely pointing out that the
patient is too thin. However, these symptoms are severe to be abated, patients can continue to
fear becoming fat but not be driven to act on the distortion by starving. The fear of fat will
eventually diminish over time. Setting the realistic eating goals is one of the most helpful
interventions for patients with eating disorders (Campbell & Hausenblas, 2009). The people
with anorexia nervosa are often the perfectionist, and they usually set unrealistic goals. After
the process of refeeding, treatment of eating disorder takes place on an outpatient basis, and it
involves individual and family therapy to reinforce healthy eating patterns and attitudes in
their daily habit.
According to Zugai, Stein‐Parbury, & Roche, (2018), the caring partnership
engendered by a therapeutic association is considered a useful tool, appreciated by the
customers who have gotten treatment for eating disorder (anorexia nervosa) in the inpatient
setting, and also by the health takers who are specialised in their field. The growth of a
therapeutic association between nurses and patients with anorexia nervosa is tough, in part,
because anorexia nervosa is an ego-sytonic psychological turmoil. Consumers with anorexia
nervosa often deny their illness. Nurses have trouble in setting up therapeutic relationships
due to misunderstanding the anorexia nervosa, a struggle for control, and also the exhaustion,
frustration and emotional challenge, from the needs of nursing patients with anorexia
nervosa. In order to overcome these barriers, a successful blended technique approach was
utilized with the introductory quantitative stage and eventually by a subsequent quantitative

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period. The examination enlisted consumers and nurses from six wards with a programme for
the treatment of anorexia nervosa in five hospitals in New South Wales Australia. Taking and
interest medical caretakers were required to work in a unit with particular application for the
treatment of illness. Interviews conducted with the health caretakers and consumers that were
acoustic recorded and examined. Nurses understood that customers wanted to feel the caring
nature. The positive connection between nurse and patients drove the patients to investigate
secure in confiding the helpful goal of the medical attendants who were endeavouring to
encourage their weight gain. Nurses interacted with the patients in a proper way that
conveyed optimistic values. The motherly nurses cordially assisted the consumers with
difficult aspects of hospitalization and completed the meaningful and memorable contribution
to the welling of the patients (Treasure, & Russell, 2011).
Ethical dilemma frequently arises in the cure of the client with eating disorders and
the doctors or the other clinicians encounter an array of ethical changes on a day to day basis.
The clinicians who examine their patients with an eating disorder often face ethical
implications such as counsellor capability and specific action knowledge in the rural areas.
The problems of eating disorders, which include a possible death- the clinicians frequently,
discover themselves, making treatment decisions that affect a clients’ mental physical and
health. The ethical principles of aptitude have an assortment of suggestions for those treating
dietary issues since the dietary issues enormously influence physical wellbeing and emotional
wellbeing and they are problematic to treat. Obvious forms of self-disclosure such as
exercise, thoughts on diet, and personal struggles with an eating disorder can also have a
tremendous consequence, potentially waiting to the patients’ healing. Whether stating a
thought of estimation on the newest diet chart or explaining any individual revival status, the
clinicians must check and appraise their observations, on an ongoing basis. The nurses or the
clinicians did not plan to cause hurt, if their patients experienced brought down certainty or

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confidence, self perception or any state of state of mind unsettling influences due to the
associations, the clinicians’ approach must be analyzed. (Wong, Cummings & Ducharme,
2013). Treating of the eating disorders in the rural areas faces many ethical implications.
Eating disorders involve both physical and mental health, it is essential for the clinicians to
have some education in the treatment modalities and standards of practice. Few areas
sometimes be short of professionals who have dedicated understanding and preparation.
Thus, the clinicians without sufficient background in eating disorders may work with a
patient who has an eating disorder. For a clinician or nurse it is essential for them to
understand the deficits from the root level, proper consultation is required with more
knowledgeable practitioners, and dedicated training can be achieved through some
investigations. (Snell, Crowe & Jordan, 2010).
It can be concluded from the analysis is that Charlie had an eating disorder and the
symptoms which are related to that type of eating disorder is anorexia nervosa. She felt that
she is fat and psychologically she became an imbalance as the day passes. Therefore, proper
guidance is required for her. Researchers indicate that young women suffering from an eating
disorder are increasing in numbers and they seek medical attention. The increase in eating
disorder can be analyzed from a biopsychosocial viewpoint. Young ladies with eating
disorders frequently encounter on the beginning of side effects during the developmental
changes including entry to universities college and their coming years. Nurses and clinicians
who regularly check patients through these moment of change must recognize and understand
the problems which the patient’s face. The helpful relationship among medical attendants and
the patient’s with anorexia nervosa is not created through arrangements between equal
partners. The healing association is dependent on health takers’ capacity to maintain their
position of control, while signifying their honesty to the patients. In trusting medical
caretakers, the patients felt more secure in contributing another idea of solace. Nurses and

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clinicians face ethical implications, and it is another factor which associates with the eating
disorder.

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References
Birmingham, C. L., & Treasure, J. (2010). Medical management of eating disorders.
Cambridge University Press.
Campbell, A., & Hausenblas, H. A. (2009). Effects of exercise interventions on body image:
A meta-analysis. Journal of health psychology, 14(6), 780-793.
Gentile, M. G., Pastorelli, P., Ciceri, R., Manna, G. M., & Collimedaglia, S. (2010).
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undernutrition. Clinical nutrition, 29(5), 627-632.
Hildebrandt, T., Bacow, T., Markella, M., & Loeb, K. L. (2012). Anxiety in anorexia nervosa
and its management using family‐based treatment. European Eating Disorders
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Johnson, S. K. (2008). Medically unexplained illness: Gender and biopsychosocial
implications. Psychological Medicine, 38(4), 607.
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