Letter to the editor: health professionals’ attitudes toward individuals with eating disorders: who do we think they are?

Deborah Lynn Reas, Kjersti Solhaug Gulliksen, Johanna Levallius, Rasmus Isomaa

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientific

5 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Health professionals are not immune to stigmatizing attitudes and stereotypes found in society-at-large. Along with patients and their loved ones, treatment providers are important stakeholders - and gatekeepers - in the successful delivery of mental healthcare. Prevailing attitudes among professionals can facilitate timely recognition, enable access to care and uptake of evidence-based practices, or undermine help-seeking and therapeutic engagement. At an interactive activity at the 2016 Nordic Eating Disorders Society (NEDS) meeting, we asked health professionals to describe individuals with eating disorders. The most common descriptive term used was "anxiety" followed by "thin", "sad", "control", "female", and "suffering/pain". Further research on professionals' attitudes toward individuals with eating disorders is necessary to inform education, awareness, and advocacy efforts following the diagnostic revisions in the DSM-5.
Original languageUndefined/Unknown
Pages (from-to)
JournalJournal of Eating Disorders
Volume5
Issue number22
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2017
MoE publication typeB1 Article in a scientific magazine

Cite this