Essay Example on The Latin term anorexia nervosa

The Latin term anorexia nervosa stands for nervous loss of appetite however it is not a very accurate description of this mental health condition Halse et al 2007 Anorexia nervosa or simply anorexia is an eating disorder characterized by very strict limitation of the food intake NHS 2018 which it is not affected by lack of appetite The primary concern for anorexic person is an extreme anxiety about the amount of fat on their body and illogical fear of weight gain by consuming too many calories which triggers the voluntary self starvation Stephenson 2017 The term anorexia nervosa was used for the first time by Sir William Gull during the nineteenth century Till 2011 However cases of women voluntarily refusing food and even starving themselves to death have already been documented in the fourth century Halse et al 2007 In 1689 Richard Morton published the first medical description of anorexia Halse et al 2007 There are various incidence statistics for anorexia available in the UK According to The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence NICE roughly one in 250 women and one in 2000 men will suffer from anorexia 2004 Approximately one in every 250 British women between ages of 15 and 30 years is affected by anorexia every year Priory 2018 According to Beating Eating Disorders Beat 2018 approximately 1 2 young women are suspected of anorexia and around 11 out of 100 thousand develop the condition every year 

There is also a high risk of suicide in patients with anorexia nervosa Stephenson 2018 p 738 The treatment of anorexia nervosa is very complicated and requires many different specialists like psychiatrist paediatrician for children and adolescents physician dietician psychologist social worker occupational therapist physiotherapist and nurses Halse et al 2007 Before it starts the team of specialists will carry out a detailed physical psychological and social needs evaluation to come out with a care plan NHS 2018 The main factor deciding whether the treatment is necessary is patient s low weight In order to establish how severe the problem is the Body Mass Index BMI is being calculated from patient s weight and height Kofod HOPE 2018 The treatment is recommended if there has been a weight loss of over 15 percent of the normal body weight Stephenson 2017 The main focus is put on gaining the lost calories and changing patient s eating habits into the healthy ones Halse et al 2007 

Very often anorexia is associated with low self esteem feeling anxiety or self doubt NHS 2018 The affected person has a distorted self image Beat 2018 During the psychological part of the treatment the therapist tries to overcome patient's fears and unrealistic beliefs about food and diet NHS 2018 Patients are encouraged to look at their past and try to find out what might have caused the unhealthy eating patterns to develop Priory 2018 The therapist will attempt to help the patient to deal with them and explain the differences between anorexia and healthy dieting NHS 2018 According to the Royal College of Psychiatrists medication is not usually prescribed for anorexia alone but it may be given for other symptoms such as obsessive compulsive disorder and depression RCPSYCH 2018 Most of the anorexia patients are being treated as an outpatient yet in severe cases the compulsory hospitalization is required NHS 2018 FEMINIST PERSPECTIVE 800 There are many different theories on how anorexia has originated and what are the causes of this eating disorder Anorexia is present mostly within female hence lots of interest in that topic comes from feminists Feminist theory is a sociological perspective based on