Epidemiologie, Verlauf, Klassifikation und Diagnostik von Essstörungen

Study paper from the year 2009 in the subject Sociology - Children and Youth, Westf&auml,lische Wilhelms-Universit&auml,t M&uuml,nster (Institut f&uuml,r Soziologie), Veranstaltung: Verhaltensst&ouml,rungen im Kindes- und Jugendalter, Sprache: German, abstract: Eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa are psychosomatic diseases and are characterised by severe disorders of eating behaviour. They mainly affect girls and young women. The first signs of disturbed eating behaviour can already be seen in children and adolescents. The characteristic symptoms of AN and BN are defined in the ICD-10 and DSM IV classification systems. The core symptom of AN is a body weight that is deliberately kept below the age and size norm and an extreme fear of gaining weight. Despite being underweight, sufferers still feel too fat (body fatness). In the case of BN, the weight of sufferers is usually within the normal range. This means that the disease can often be kept secret for years. The main features are bouts of hot hunger followed by counter-regulatory measures such as vomiting or excessive exercise. Given the prevalence of binge eating already in adolescence, school plays an important role as a place of prevention and education. The topic 'eating disorders' is only partially included in curricula, for example in vocational schools. It would be desirable to embed the topic even more strongly in the lessons. This requires committed teachers who deal with this problem intensively.