Specialist Medical Assessment of Eating Disorders

As physical aspects of eating disorders have been reviewed elsewhere in this book (Katzman and Rawal), we will confine ourselves in this chapter to the physical assessment of eating disorder patients in general and in different clinical contexts. We first review the medical assessment of eating disorders in all contexts, with different clinical aims, namely, Diagnosis and Detection, Risk Assessment, Other Physical Comorbidities, and Managing Identified Risks. Clinicians are advised to familiarize themselves with a recognized Risk Assessment Framework which will vary in different countries, MEED in the UK. The second part of the chapter is devoted to medical assessment in different specific contexts, namely, Primary Care, the Emergency Department, Hospital Medical Outpatients, and Psychiatry Outpatients. Finally we provide advice on communicating with referrers and other health workers. This chapter should be read in conjunction with Katzman and Rawal’s chapter.