Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified - Problems With The EDNOS Diagnosis

Problems With The EDNOS Diagnosis

The preponderance of EDNOS in clinical practice poses many clinical and research challenges. Since EDNOS comprises so many heterogeneous presentations, no evidence-based treatment has been developed specifically for EDNOS, and geneticists have not been able to identify specific genes that confer EDNOS risk. Even though EDNOS is a serious eating disorder, health insurance companies may not provide coverage commensurate to that of anorexia or bulimia nervosa, and patients may find the diagnosis invalidating. According to Adam Lamparello, whose most appropriate diagnosis was EDNOS despite exercising excessively and eating little more than raw vegetables in his memoir Ten-Mile Morning: My Journal Through Anorexia Nervosa, “I didn’t want to have a junior varsity eating problem.”