The Diagnostic Work-Up of Eating Disorders

Abstract

Background: The mortality of Anorexia Nervosa (AN) is the highest among all psychiatric disorders, and Eating Disorders (ED) overall pose serious health threats to a significant proportion of the population. In spite of an increasing recognition of the clinical impact of ED, often, the general readiness and knowledge of the diagnostic work-up among Physicians is insufficient. Material and method: A literature search of recent national and international scientific publications on the diagnostic work-up of ED was done in November 2015. PUBMED was the major source of information, but also known publications were utilized to collate the relevant information. Result: The result is presented as essential components in the diagnostic workup, where potential relevant clinical findings such as e.g. eating behaviours, co-morbidities, laboratory findings, medical risk and risk of suicidality, are all necessary to enable an accurate diagnosis as part of a multilayered clinical problem description, in the diagnostic work-up of ED. Discussion: Early and accurate diagnosis of ED will enable prompt initiation of relevant treatment. This is most optimally served by a multilayered clinical problem description, where the clinical diagnosis is one part, together with several other clinical aspects, of ED.