About this Research Topic
This Research Topic is the second volume of the 'Community Series in Extreme Eating Behaviors'. Please see the first volume here.
Extreme eating behaviors are an increasing global health threat. This statement applies in terms of how, how much, and what people eat.
Obesity will soon be the global avoidable cause of death number one. At the other pole of the weight spectrum, anorexia nervosa is still the most lethal among psychiatric disorders, because the physical consequences of anorexia and its high risk for suicide take their toll.
In recent decades, our knowledge on the impact of further disorders of disturbed eating such as bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder, and avoidant-restrictive food intake disorder has increased massively. Nevertheless, treatment options are still limited for each of the mentioned disorders within the whole spectrum.
Even though the amount of ingested calories exceed the needs of modern people by far, food is often lacking certain important nutrients, putting people at risk for malnutrition, uncontrolled inflammatory processes, and serious physical and mental health sequelae.
The current Covid-19 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic has caused social withdrawal, loneliness, and increased social media use, which has led to a rise in the prevalence of both restrictive as well as impulsive food consumption, and a consecutive overwhelming rush on eating disorders and obesity services.
This second volume of the Research Topic will address the psychological and biological mechanisms underlying disturbed eating, their association with mental and physical health risks, and the diagnostic tools and therapies that are currently evaluated or developed. It will additionally be open to manuscripts covering how these behaviors have been perceived and dealt with in the past, and how they will be conceptualized and treated in the future.
Extreme eating behaviors are an increasing global health threat. This statement applies in terms of how, how much, and what people eat.
Obesity will soon be the global avoidable cause of death number one. At the other pole of the weight spectrum, anorexia nervosa is still the most lethal among psychiatric disorders, because the physical consequences of anorexia and its high risk for suicide take their toll.
In recent decades, our knowledge on the impact of further disorders of disturbed eating such as bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder, and avoidant-restrictive food intake disorder has increased massively. Nevertheless, treatment options are still limited for each of the mentioned disorders within the whole spectrum.
Even though the amount of ingested calories exceed the needs of modern people by far, food is often lacking certain important nutrients, putting people at risk for malnutrition, uncontrolled inflammatory processes, and serious physical and mental health sequelae.
The current Covid-19 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic has caused social withdrawal, loneliness, and increased social media use, which has led to a rise in the prevalence of both restrictive as well as impulsive food consumption, and a consecutive overwhelming rush on eating disorders and obesity services.
This second volume of the Research Topic will address the psychological and biological mechanisms underlying disturbed eating, their association with mental and physical health risks, and the diagnostic tools and therapies that are currently evaluated or developed. It will additionally be open to manuscripts covering how these behaviors have been perceived and dealt with in the past, and how they will be conceptualized and treated in the future.
Keywords: Malnutrition, Obesity, Weight gain, Binge eating disorder, Bulimia nervosa, Anorexia nervosa
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
