Recent films and series portray the anguish and sadness of some characters who suffer from eating disorders. Because of this, there is an idea that the number of new cases of eating disorders are increasing at alarming rates. Despite this common sense, eating disorders cases are relatively uncommon in the general population and the patients tends to avoid seeking for professional help, which makes the epidemiology study more difficult. In addition, some of the few patients who look for help are often assisted by their family doctors who doesn’t report the data or refer them to a mental health institution, which leads to an underestimation of the disease occurrence. Even though that Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa are the most known by common population, due to the media aforementioned, studies show that the most prevalent eating disorder diagnosis is the EDNOS (eating disorder not otherwise …show more content…
Further, the incidence rates are higher in young females (range 15-19) than in any other group, constituting almost 40% of the reported cases. According to studies done in the UK and Netherlands, the incidence rate of Bulimia Nervosa decreased from the second half of the 1990s until in 2000, when it remains stable in women aged 10-19 years. Studies done in Italy and Netherlands also show a decrease followed by a plateau of the incidence rate. However, there is not enough data about the incidence rate of EDNOS because its definition is heterogeneous and its definition criteria is relatively new. Another important concern that is being studied is the lifetime prevalence (proportion of people that had the disorder at any point in their life). A comparison study between western and non-westen countries, done by Makino, M., Tsuboi, K., and Dennerstein, L. (2004) suggests that the prevalence rates for anorexia nervosa in western countries ranges from 0.1% to 5.7% in women and for bulimia nervosa ranges from 0 to 2.1% in men and 0.3% to 7.3% in women. While in non-western countries, the prevalence rate for bulimia nervosa ranges from 0.46% to 3.2% in women. According to a research conducted by Grange, L. D., Swanson, A.