“Beat estimate that there are over 1.6 million people suffering from diagnosed or undiagnosed eating disorders throughout the UK”
In fact, in women between the ages of 15 and 30, an astonishing 1 in 100 women will suffer with this disease and 25% of all sufferers are male. https://www.eatingdisorderhope.com/information/anorexia/anorexia-nervosa-highest-mortality-rate-of-any-mental-disorder-why. 2015
https://www.b-eat.co.uk/about-eating-disorders/types-of-eating-disorder/anorexia
2014
“Without treatment, 20% of people with eating disorders …show more content…
Now I’m going to go into more detail about the deadliest of all disorders; Anorexia Nervosa. This ‘is a severe mental illness where people keep their body weight low by dieting, vomiting, using laxatives and excessively exercising’. Alongside this, many sufferers will also struggle with forms of depression, self-harm and suicidal tendencies, as well as body dysmorphia, personality disorders and substance and/or alcohol misuse. If you have a look at handout 1, you can see exact statistics matched with disorders.
On its own, this disease is extremely serious and causes critical physical health problems due to the consequences of malnutrition and starvation in the body. Those who survive can – and often are – left with permanent conditions such as osteoporosis, stinted growth, organ failure and even devastatingly, infertility… anorexia affects every single system in the entire body. …show more content…
You will see in handout 3 exactly how this adds up.
However, dependent on the severity of both the physical and mental health problems, it has been indicated that in some cases in can cost up to £100,000, again, for one patient in one year!!! With an ‘initial average 6-year cycle for treatment’ this could (and has) cost up to £600,000 for an individual treatment plan, which, as critics may point out – holds the possibility of a) relapse, b) failure of treatment or c) could, and is increasingly leading to death. https://www.b-eat.co.uk/assets/000/000/302/The_costs_of_eating_disorders_Final_original.pdf 2015
To go even further in depth of the direct costs of treatment, studies of up to 725,000 concludes that on an ANNUAL basis, NHS treatment of eating disorders costs a staggering £3.9billion - £4.6billion, and for those who opt for private treatment it would then reach a further £0.9billion - £1.1billion. All in all, this results in the economy loss of between £6.8billion - £8billion income in just a year.
This is a shockingly large amount of money, but as all the evidence suggests… it still isn’t enough!!!!
https://www.b-eat.co.uk/assets/000/000/302/The_costs_of_eating_disorders_Final_original.pdf