Etiology of Eating Disorders A review of sociocultural, biological and Essay

Etiology of Eating Disorders A review of sociocultural, biological and environmental factors - Essay Example These include the socio-economic factors like cultural considerations of body image and media influence (the recent hype created by the sickly size zero models is a prominent example in this regard).These disorders are also caused by biological factors , in terms of genetics and hormonal problems which are generally aggravated by clinical depression and the traumatic time period of puberty especially for young teenage girls. Eating disorders remain a hazard for the emotional and physical well being of a patient. The modern society with its complex nuclear family systems and increasingly disturbed teenagers are increasingly threatened by ha Socio-cultural factors are the most highlighted by the media. ... such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa, are characterized by abnormal eating patterns and typical psychopathological features, a drive for starving thinness.(Uher et al 2005). Also at times these disorders may lead to a complete deliberate disregard for any sustenance at all.(Uher et al. 2005). Medical Science has yet to reach a coherent and unchallenged conclusion regarding the current evidence that suggests that biological, environmental and social factors are important .(Panfilis et al 2003).The reason for this is that the relative influence of these broad factors is not uniform across all patient histories. Although a fair amount of discussion is devoted to the etiologies of the other disorders, the review avoids any discussion of the psychological factors which have been comprehensively reviewed by other literature. (Williamson 2004) Studies show that young boys and girls are restricting themselves from good , nutritious food in order to look like celebrities they admire (Williamson 2004).Also recent statistics show that the age of onset of the AN disorder is 14-19years (Fairburn 2003).Also it has been noted that most of the patients (almost 95%) are females (Van Hoeken 2003).Another interesting thing to note is that many anorexics will inevitably show patterns of bulimic behaviour and most bulimics will posses an anorexia problem in the past(Steinhausen 2002). Research on the connection between starvation and eating disorders (Crisp 1995) has pointed put how starvation and AN affect a human body in a similar way. In a recent Growing Up Today Study (GUTS) performed in the United States, it was found that 32% of girls and 20% of boys were trying to lose weight (Williamson 2004) Whereas some of participants of this study reported more severe