Academy of Eating Disorders Position Paper:Eating Disorders are Serious Mental Illnesses

The March 2009 issue of the International Journal of Eating Disorders (42:2, 97-103, 2009) has an important position paper by well known researchers in the field of eating disorders, defining eating disorders as serious mental illnesses.

This paper provides a brief review of the compelling evidence that eating disorders are biologically based, heritable illnesses and in doing so paves the way for these disorders to be viewed differently by insurance agancies and clinicians.  It will be a call for clinicians, including Registered Dietitians, to review and update their clinical practice guidelines.