For our topic this week, it was bulimia nervosa (BN). The article we discussed was written by Dr. Stephen Wonderlich, a Concordia Alumni, and the inaugural speaker for our Nornes Lectureship in Neuroscience.
BN is eating large amounts of food, and then purging or trying to get rid of the calories in an unhealthy way. These methods include vomiting, laxatives, diuretics or enemas after bingeing.
According to the Mayo Clinic, risk factors for BN are being a female, age, biology, psychological and emotional issues, media and sports pressure.
In Dr. Wonderlich’s review, his team designed a treatment based on how BN changes from an impulsive action to compulsive behavior. Their plan of approach is called the Integrative Cognitive-Affective Therapy (ICAT). As in the title, it focuses on the cognitive behavioral therapy aspect of psychotherapy. It helps a patient recognize their unhealthy, negative behaviors and replacing them with more healthy and positive ones.
The term negative urgency was present in Dr. Wonderlich’s review. The term is defined as the tendency to engage in rash action in response to extreme negative emotions, so it is a genetic factor for some people with BN. Negative urgency is the only trait that can consistently predict binge eating and purging. By understanding how some patients are genetically at risk for BN, and then incorporating the media idea of a “perfect” body image shows a recipe for an increase in BN patients.
By understanding how some people are at risk for BN, and decreasing the media’s “ideal” body as well as other risk factors will help reduce the number of bulimics. If a person does become diagnose with BN, but then incorporating Dr. Wonderlich’s and colleagues treatment plan of ICAT. It will help treat one the most severe eating disorders.
Uncovering Bulimia Nervosa
