Eating Disorders as Cultural Syndromes

Eating disorders appear to have become more prevalent among young women during the time that American icons of beauty have become thinner and women's magazines are filled with articles on weight loss (Keel and Klump, 2003. Eating disorder patients often have an intense preoccupation with weight in the early stages of their illness and the American Psychiatric Associations's (2000) diagnostic criteria for both AN and BN requires a disturbance of body image. Dieting and concerns with weight are at the center of the etiology of the behavioral theory of eating disorders.

More recently, eating disorder research has focused more on the genetic basis of these illnesses, su

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, first appearing when Western culture emphasized being thin as the ideal (Keel and Klump, 2003). The term anorexia nervosa was introduced in 1874, and even before that, reports of a similar syndrome appeared in the medical literature. As to cross-cultural evidence for AN, it has been found in every culture in the world. However, weight concern as a motivating factor for AN does not appear to be universal. Westernization and industrialization bring about conditions which are conducive to weight concerns, but AN can develop without their influence. Cases which cannot be attributed to Western influences have been found in the Middle East, East Asia, and on the Indian subcontinent. Also, evidence for a secular increase in AN is only modest when factors such as changes in population distribution, population size, and ascertainment of cases through psychiatric registers are considered. AN appears to have existed throughout numerous periods in history. As for BN, the rates seem to have increased over recent years (Keel and Klump, 2003). Although the rate seems to have been increasing in the later half of the 20th century, the cause for these changes is not clear, but the notion is supported by evidence across birth cohorts wh
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