Eating Disorders Aeur A Paradigm Of The Biopsychosocial Model Of Illness PDF Download

The diagnostic system for psychiatric illnesses in the DSM has been widely criticized for lack of empirical backing, ambiguous validity pertaining to its categories, high rates of transdiagnostic comorbidity, and significant within-group heterogeneity. Eating disorder diagnoses in particular have raised concerns with regard to having a poor reflection of clinical reality, consistently observed diagnostic crossover, lack of support for diagnostic subtypes, and overuse of the residual unspecified category. Since eating disorders are a pervasive and debilitating condition, proper and thorough care is necessary for clients to approach remission. Poor clinical utility from a deficient nosological system hinders optimal client care and early intervention. The DSM currently recognizes anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge-eating disorder as three categorical and unique diagnoses. Multiple alternative diagnostic models for eating disorders have been proposed, including those of a categorical and dimensional nature, but none has received sufficient support for implementation. This project proposes a paradigm shift in eating disorder diagnosis with a hybrid categorical-dimensional model comprised of Restrictive Profile, which emphasizes the features of anorexia nervosa, restricting type (AN-R), and Impulsive Profile, which describes core symptoms of binge-eating disorder (BED); anorexia nervosa, binge-eating/purging type (AN-BP); and bulimia nervosa (BN). The integrative biopsychosocial classification system is comprised of dominant eating disorder symptoms, co-occurring psychiatric illnesses, and neurobiological mechanisms. The assessment procedure utilizes psychometric measures and clinical observations to assess dimensions of eating disorder symptomatology, level of impairment related to the eating disturbances, comorbid psychopathology, and clinically significant personality traits for an inclusive and personalized diagnosis. This project presents an extensive literature review to substantiate this proposal and explores the diagnostic and assessment approaches in detail