Eating disorders

The term eating disorders refers to a variety of disorders. The common feature of all the eating disorders is abnormal eating behaviors. Eating disorders are serious mental health problems and can be life threatening.

Anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa are common eating disorders of adolescents and young adults.

There are many different types of eating disorders that require clinical care by a physician or other healthcare professional. Listed in the directory below are some, for which we have provided a brief overview.

Facts about eating disorders:

• Between 3 and 5 percent of all adolescent females have a diagnosable eating disorder.
• Anorexia is much more common among females, however, males account for between 4 and 10 percent of adolescents diagnosed with eating disorders.
• According to the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, eating disorders have one of the highest mortality rates of all mental disorders, killing as may as 6 percent of those affected.
• Many adolescents with eating disorders also have obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

Anorexia nervosa
Bulimia nervosa

Toolkit for health care providers:

Note: Our team is working on adding a more robust, interactive eating disorders toolkit to this page. The PDFs linked below can serve as an immediate resource, but we encourage you to check back often for the updated toolkit here.  

• Eating disorders toolkit for medical providers
• Eating disorders toolkit for mental health providers
• Eating disorders toolkit for registered dietitians