Eating Disorder Cases Skyrocket

Increasing patient caseloads, professional collaboration/patient sharing and lack of medical resources are among the trends revealed in a May 2009 survey of eating disorder professionals conducted by the Eating Recovery Center (http://www.eatingrecoveryinfo.com), a treatment center for eating recovery.

Due to the rapid growth in the number of patients presenting with an eating disorder, as well as increased awareness of the medical complications often associated with eating disorders, clinicians are finding it critical to work with other professionals to effectively treat eating disordered patients.

Among 158 respondents, 52 percent have seen their eating disorder patient caseloads increase over the past three years. While 83 percent of respondents are very comfortable diagnosing eating disorders and 81 percent are very comfortable treating eating disorders, 94 percent responded that they share some portion of that treatment with other professionals.

“Eating disorders are complicated diseases with multiple etiologies,” explained Kenneth L. Weiner, M.D., medical director of the Eating Recovery Center. “As these results show, the vast majority of our colleagues understand that a cross-disciplinary approach is necessary for successful and sustainable treatment