More on the problematic EDNOS category (and diagnostic crossover)
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the eating disorder not otherwise specified (EDNOS) category. ED-NOS is a diagnostic category for all individuals with subthreshold anorexia or bulimia nervosa or those with a mix of symptoms that don’t fit neatly into AN or BN. ED-NOS is essentially everything else. A mixed bag, if you will. It doesn’t tell the clinician nor the researcher anything useful, outside of what it isn’t. So, is there any use for it? If it doesn’t tell the clinician about patient symptoms or guide choice of treatment, why even bother? Does it help researchers understand EDs or do they just want to avoid this messy and heterogenous group (that by the way makes up most of those with eating disorders)? In this entry (and many more to come), I want to further explore these questions.
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Wilfley, D., Bishop, M., Wilson, G., & Agras, W. (2007). Classification of eating disorders: Toward DSM-V International Journal of Eating Disorders, 40 (S3) DOI: 10.1002/eat.20436
Fairburn, C., Cooper, Z., Bohn, K., O’Connor, M., Doll, H., & Palmer, R. (2007). The severity and status of eating disorder NOS: Implications for DSM-V Behaviour Research and Therapy, 45 (8), 1705-1715 DOI: 10.1016/j.brat.2007.01.010