Introduction to Clinical Features

This chapter aims to provide a broad and integrative perspective on the clinical variables that characterize eating disorders. According to a biopsychosocial model, psychological, emotional, and physical variables interact with each other and offer us a perfect vision of the complexity and multifactorial nature of these disorders. Aspects related to their different clinical severity will be analyzed, considering their comorbidity with other mental and somatic disorders and their specificities. This chapter also examines the clinical variability with which EDs are usually associated, considering diversity, both in terms of gender and in minority populations.