Epidemiology and mortality of eating disorders

What makes it worthwhile to invest effort into a clinical problem? The problem must be common, demanding, or severe. The eating disorders live up to these specifications. Maybe eating disorders are not so common, but changes in attitudes toward care and the severity of these disorders present a severe burden for health care delivery Systems(46,) (54,) (71,) (90) and managed care.(68) These disorders are severe in many ways, carrying a considerable risk for emotional, psychosocial and sexual "stunting,"(68) and significant risks for morbidity(9,) (98,) (99) and mortality.(70) The fact that it is possible to die from starvation ought not to present any intellectual problems for people with a memory going some 50 years back or with an interest in newer history. This fact was the subject of a presentation by Eitinger(13) at the 1965 symposium in Gottingen, Germany. This article presents a transatlantic view of the epidemiology and mortality in the eating disorders to expand the field of vision a little beyond the DSM-IV2 and managed care.(19, 46, 106)