Introduction:
Today, we chose to work on the topic of eating disorders in men. Indeed, we have chosen to work on this thematic because of our real interest for it. It brought us to ask ourselves about it during our research for Mélissa’s thesis. My Master’s thesis project dealt with the issue of food compulsion: the link between emotional regulation and impulsiveness and also the comparison between men and women.
In addition, eating disorders in women are mostly studied in international literature (Valls, Callahan, Rousseau & Chabrol, 2014). But what about men? Some authors reveal an underestimation of this prevalence.
Eating disorders: clinical and subclinical:
Public health concerns are increasingly focused on eating disorders. In fact, these different forms of behavior cause physical and mental health risks for people, and had become a signifiant cause of death among adolescents and young adults (Shankland, 2014, 2016).
In the new version of the Diagnostic Manual of Mental Disorders, there are several eating disorders, such as: anorexia nervosa, bulimia, and recently the addition of binge eating disorders* (APA, 2013; Shankland, 2016). There is a worrying increase in eating disorders in industrialized countries: with the prevalence of about 0.5 to 1% for anorexia nervosa, and between 2% and 5% for bulimia and binge eating disorders in subjects from 12 to 25 years old. However, this does not include all dietary behaviors, such as subclinical eating disorders, which now represent the prevalence of more than 14% in this 12 to 25-year-old population (Shankland, 2014, 2016).
The category of disorders called “subclinical” corresponds to attenuated forms in which symptoms do not meet the diagnostic criteria of the diagnostic manual, the DSM-5 (A.P.A, 2013). The subclinical food disturbances are formed by different behaviors; such as dietary restriction behaviors with weight loss or occasional use of compensatory behavior, excess physical exercise and negative body dissatisfaction, as well as compulsions which are commonly found in the general population (Shankland, 2016). According to Valls, Callahan, Rousseau and Chabrol (2014), despite the official non-recognition of subclinical disorders as being disorders in their own right, they also need to be considered as risks to physical and psychological health. In fact, subclinical symptoms remain a source of suffering and can, in some cases, lead to more severe eating disorders (Valls et al., 2014).
Article:
Valls, S. Callahan, A. Rousseau, & H. Chabrol (2014). Eating disorders and depressive symptoms: An epidemiological study in a male population.
First of all, the main objective of these authors was to evaluate the frequency of eating disorders in men, whether it is the so-called clinical (i.e. anorexia nervosa, bulimia or other) and subclinical eating disorders (such as purging, vomiting, diet, fasting). The second objective of this study was to study the link between eating disorders and depressive symptoms.
Valls, Callahan, Rousseau and Chabrol (2014) obtain a total of 458 young adults, aged 18 to 30 years. These participants answered two questionnaires: the first to assess their eating disorders and the another one to assess depression.
The results of this study reveal a percentage of 17% of eating disorders found in these young men. But this result includes 12% subclinical eating disorders. The most common eating behavior found in the sample is subclinical bulimia without hyperphagia. It is a food intake that is accompanied by compensatory behaviors, with insufficient frequency to be a clinical disorder. The participants are 43% to be in a practice of taking and controlling weight and 30% to be in a weight loss research. This is explained by a population of young men who are most in search of muscle mass gain and, at the same time, associated with a strong bodily concern. In addition, signs of depression, moderate to severe, are found in 18% of men in the study.
Overall, the authors were able to reveal that the highest depression scores were significantly found in participants with significant eating disorders, clinical or subclinical. It is therefore important to explore the presence of depressive symptoms in men with eating disorders. Moreover, it is important, according to these authors, to also be able to take into account the subclinical signs in the male population.
Conclusion:
Given the results of this research, it now seems necessary to develop a better understanding of the processes related to food disruption for subclinical people. These people who are not in the path of care, but who may have psychological difficulties related to their subclinical eating disorder.
Today, more and more prevention programs make it possible to set up intervention targets for a non-clinical or subclinical population. They are made earlier and allow to reduce in an effective way risk factors and / or upstream maintenance of clinical symptomatology. For example, the interest of mindfulness meditation to work on the acceptance of difficult emotions, and avoid being in an emotional eating behavior; and the use of food diaries, which are increasingly used in the general population.
* Binge Eating Disorder: is represented by an important and compulsive intake of food, but without behaviors to compensate for the type of vomiting, laxatives, sports hyperactivity.
CHAUVIN Chloé
DAHERON Mélissa
Bibliographie :
- American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. (5th ed.). Washington, DC : American Psychiatric Association.
- Lundahl, A., Wahlstrom, L., Christ, C., & Stoltenberg, S. (2015). Gender differences in the relationship between impulsivity and disordered eating behaviors and attitudes. Eating behavior, 18, 120-124. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.eatbeh.2015.05.004
- Pearson, C. M. Wonderlich, S. A., & Smith, G. T. (2015). A Risk and Maintenant Model for Bulimina Nervosa : From Impulsive Action to Compulsive Behavior. Psychological Review. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0039268
- Shankland, R. (2014). Chapitre 7. Comportements alimentaires et interventions préventives in G.-N., Fischer et al (Eds), Psychologie de la santé : applications et interventions (pp.171-194). Paris : Dunod.
- Shankland, R. (2016). Les troubles du comportement alimentaire : Prévention et accompagnement thérapeutique. Paris : Dunod.
- Tanofsky, M. B., Wilfley, D. E., Spurell, E. B., Welch, R., & Brownell, K. D. (1997).Comparison of men and women with binge eating disorders. The International Journal of Eating Disorders, 21(1), 49-54. http://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1098108X(199701)21:1<49::AID-EAT6>3.0.CO;2-3
- Valls, M., Callahan, S., Rousseau, A., et Chabrol, H. (2014). Eating disorders and depressive symptoms : An epidemiological study in a male population. L’encéphale, 40, 223-230. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.encep.2013.05.003
