What risk factors are associate with eating disorders?

The risk of developing an eating disorder can stem from a wide range of interacting psychosocial, biological and social factors which increases the heterogeneity of experiences and symptoms that people with experience. However, research has identified several broad factors that can influence the propensity to develop an eating disorder.

Disordered eating refers to a range of irregular eating behaviors. Some behaviors include restricting the amount of food one eats, compulsive eating, and overly restricting the types of food one eats.

Biological factors

Genetic research has established the familial nature of AN, with those with a first degree relative with AN having a ten-fold greater lifetime risk of developing the disorder. Twin studies have estimated the heritability of AN at 50-60%. Attempts to identify specific genes. Which might be implicated in the risk of AN have been less successful, although more recent genome-wide association studies have shown genetic correlations between AN and other psychiatric disorders. However, genetic studies of other types of eating disorders are scarce.

Other biological risk factors include a strong correlation between the development of binge eating disorder and a history of dieting, and insulin-resistant diabetes

Psychological factors

Certain psychological traits including perfectionism and cognitive-behavioral inflexibility are associate with the risk of developing an eating disorder. Specifically, setting unrealistically high expectations of oneself and an inability to adapt to unexpected conditions.

Eating disorders are also highly comorbid with anxiety disorders, particularly specific phobias and social anxiety. Interestingly, social anxiety is most closely ทางเข้า ufabet associated with BN and BED. With both sharing similar cognitive styles such as fears of social evaluation and inflexible appraisals of social situations.

Signs and Symptoms

Disordered eating may include the following:

• Restrictive eating, which includes minimizing the amount of food a person eats
• Compulsive eating, a disordered eating pattern that involves eating regardless of hunger
• Irregular or inflexible eating patterns, in which people severely limit the types of food they eat