Overview of the Program

The Hobart Clinic offers a comprehensive Day program for the assessment and treatment of eating disorders, including Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia and Eating Disorders Not Otherwise Specified (EDNOS).  Patients undergo an initial assessment so that a treatment program can be developed for them.  Treatment will include group therapy, individual psychological therapy, dietetic advice and support and meal support.

The Program will be conducted on Mondays and Thursdays and patients will be required to attend from 11.30am to 6.00pm.

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Referral

Patients must be referred to the program by their General Practitioner (GP).  Prior to commencing the program, the GP will conduct certain tests, as specified by the program.  While you are on the program, you will be required to have a follow-up with your GP at least twice monthly, or more often if required.  This is so that we can ensure that you stay physically well.

Patients attending the program must be aged between 18 and 40 years and must be medically stable at the time of referral.  It is important that patients accept the need for change and are willing to be fully involved in the program.

Further information regarding inclusion and exclusion criteria is available from the Therapy Program Co-ordinator.

Information on eating disorders

• Common eating disorders are Anorexia, Bulimia Nervosa, Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified and Binge Eating Disorder.
• Eating disorders are poorly understood and underestimated in contemporary society.  There are mistaken beliefs that eating disorders are about vanity, attention seeking or a person going through a phase.  In fact the origins of eating disorders are complex and the illness pathology is characterised by severe psychiatric and medical manifestations. 
• Eating disorders have been described over many centuries and are not just a feature of a thinness culture in contemporary society.  They were first described as disorders in the mid nineteenth century.
• Estimates of prevalence over time and cross culturally have remained remarkably stable including amongst non-Western societies and cultures that do not overvalue thinness.
• The lifetime prevalence of Anorexia Nervosa in women is estimated to be between 0.3 and 1.5%.  Prevalence rates for Bulimia Nervosa vary between 1 and 5%.  Eating disorders are singificantly less frequent in men with about a 10 to 1 female preponderance.
• The diagnostic criteria for eating disorders are constantly evolving and may change in coming years.
• Mortality rates for eating disorders are twelve times higher than the annual death rate from all other causes in females aged 15 to 24 years of age.  Standardised mortality rate for suicide among those with eating disorders is approximately 20%.  This is the highest mortality rate of any psychiatric illness.
• Eating disorders may present at any age but the peak presentations are in early adolescence and the late teens.  The most significant predisposing factor for Anorexia Nervosa is excessive dieting.  However, whilst this is a predisposing factor, it does not indicate that Anorexia Nervosa is directly linked to excessive dieting as there are multiple causes for why a person develops Anorexia Nervosa and excessive dieting may be an early feature of that complex causation.  Genetic factors in Anorexia Nervosa are increasingly apparent.
• Adolescent females who diet at a severe level are 18 times more likely to develop an eating disorder within six months.  Over 12 months they have 20% chance of developing an eating disorder.  Greater than half of the individuals with eating disorders have comorbid depression and 60% have a comorbid anxiety disorder.  Personality difficulties are present in over half of individuals with eating disorders with obsessive compulsive personality (perfectionism) being very common in Anorexia Nervosa and Borderline Personality Disorder in Bulimia Nervosa. 
• Eating disorders are the twelfth leading cause of hospitalisation costs due to mental health within Australia and expense of treatment of an episode of Anorexia Nervosa has been reported to come second only to the cost of cardiac artery bypass surgery.
• The percentage of disability adjusted life years decrease in socio-functioning in eating disorders (6.3%) is comparable to schizophrenia (5.1%).
• Between the ages of 15 and 24 Bulimia Nevosa and Anorexia Nervosa are the 8th and 10th leading causes of burden of disease.
• Early intervention has been shown to afford the best chance of remission and better lifetime prognosis.