An Evolutionary Approach to Understanding and Treating Anorexia Nervosa and Other Eating Problems / Shan Guisinger.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Guisinger, Shan, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Anorexia nervosa.

Psychobiology--Research.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (238 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

London, England : Academic Press, [2024]

Summary:

This book explores anorexia nervosa and other eating disorders through the lens of evolutionary biology and behavioral ecology. It challenges traditional views by suggesting that these disorders are adaptations to ancient environments, rather than mere psychological or personal failings. The author, Shan Guisinger, offers a novel treatment approach called the 'Adapted to Famine Treatment,' which takes into account the evolutionary origins of such disorders. The book delves into the implications of viewing eating disorders as adaptive responses to ancient challenges, aiming to reduce stigma and improve treatment outcomes. It is intended for practitioners, researchers, and anyone interested in the evolutionary understanding of eating disorders. Generated by AI.

Contents:

Front Cover

An Evolutionary Approach to Understanding and Treating Anorexia Nervosa and Other Eating Problems

Copyright

Dedication

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

1 - A brief overview of human evolution and eating problems

Comfort and meaning

2 - Understanding anorexia nervosa

Claire

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-III (DSM-III) in 1980

Best practice today

Historical understanding of AN

Saints or hysterics?

Scientific explanations

Controlling mothers

No relationship

Organic or functional?

An explanation from evolutionary behavioral ecology

Adapted to flee famine

How anorexia takes control

Resistance to the evolutionary explanation

Radical paradigm change

Psychology's preference for the idea of the mind as a blank slate

Logical evidence

What people with AN do is normally impossible

Some animals do exactly the same things when starving

Genetic evidence

The genetic reason for the AN sex ratio

Neuroendocrine evidence

Leptin

Brain imaging evidence

Body fat overestimation

Why has paradigm change been slow for AN?

Theories about AN's core psychopathology

Ignorance of the signs of evolution

Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels

Gifted girls

Economic incentives

Resistance continues

An incorrect explanation for AN has deadly consequences

Assisted suicide

Role of current beauty standards

Weight loss dieting is a double disaster

Teen girls and women must care about meeting beauty standards

3 - Overview of the Adapted to Famine Treatment for anorexia nervosa

Understanding and treating passionate convictions, obsessive desires, and compulsive behaviors

A perfect biopsychosocial storm.

The sameness of AN: Lynette and Rachel

The adapted-to-famine treatment challenges the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders definition of AN

Case example

How loved ones can help

The explanation is everything

The Adapted to Famine Treatment for AN

Three stages of recovery

Neurobiology of anorexia's starving phase

Leptin in the starving phase

Atypical anorexia

Neurocircuitry changes

Anxiety dreams of ice cream

Neurobiology of anorexia's nearly weight recovered phase

Neurobiology of anorexia's weight recovered phase

Biological causation is good news for the therapeutic relationship

Making new meaning

Therapists, dieticians, physicians, and loved ones can help

From feminine weakness to pleistocene heroism

4 - Treatment in the starving phase

General clinical considerations

Initial phone call

Beginning the first session

Working with the treatment team

The role of therapists

Support refeeding with labor nurse's mindset

Support refeeding with Pleistocene politeness

Educational component of AN-AFT's CBT

Self-deception, body fat overestimation, denial of illness, and lack of insight

Motivational interviewing for challenging the AN agenda

Double-sided reflection

I want to be healthy

What do you want for your life?

Acceptance and commitment therapy techniques with AN

A repertoire of self-talk

Reframe their attributions "needs to rebel" or "need for control" to stone age needs

Nutrition education

Treatment for fear of eating and food phobias

Working with adolescents

Working with their parents

The role of helpers

Information about the risks of AN

Using motivation interviewing with adolescents

Agreeing with a twist

Reflection followed by reframing

Emphasizing personal choice and control.

We explicitly challenge self- and parent-blaming theories

When it seems like vanity and fear of getting fat

For parent-blaming

Cognitive reframing: dealing with patient's and loved ones' sense of guilt

Other clinical situations

How to make mealtimes go better

Anorexia nervosa will come roaring back

When a higher level of care is needed

Other symptoms

Cutting

Working with younger children

The wisdom of parents

What is it like to have AN as a preteen?

Magic plate

5 - Nearly weight restored

The razor's edge

Relationship issues in phase 2

Body dissatisfaction in phase 2

Education about nutrition: Normalize fats

Education about biological changes: willpower versus wisdom

Education about body changes

Who's in charge?

Motivational interviewing: what really matters to you?

What would you want for a beloved friend in this situation?

Gestalt techniques: letter from her body

Actually feeding a hungry heart

6 - Weight recovered phase

The relationship in Phase 3

Were people who developed AN really mentally ill before the illness?

Perfectionism

Do or die: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

Interventions for symptoms in Phase 3

Body dissatisfaction

Men looking for a mate care less about looks than character and intelligence

Relapse prevention and accepting one's healthy body size

Support for weight stabilization

What if nothing you do would change your weight?

Mourning the loss of anorexia's sense of being special and of having an important mission

A new mission

Working with comorbid psychopathology

Severe and enduring AN

Reparative family therapy during Phase 3

7 - Problems with the DSM

The interpreter explains it all

Patient's search for an explanation.

Other evidence overlooked by DSM authors

Criterion A: restriction of energy intake

Neuroendocrine evidence that weight loss initiates the disorder

Denying that hyperactivity is a primary symptom

Obscuring the similarity of animal models

Brain circuit changes in humans and animals

Super abilities are impossible without evolution

Why are newly pubescent girls more vulnerable?

A genetics × estrogen × serious weight loss interaction

Criterion B: intense fear of gaining weight

How best to understand the fear of feeding in AN?

Criterion C: disturbance in the way body shape is experienced

Starvation causes anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive symptoms

Inference to the best explanation

Three phases of AN recovery are due to distinct and specific neurobiological adaptations to different levels of weight loss

Biases that lead to difficulty in paradigm change

Confusion of levels of explanation

Social and cognitive biases

Consequences of traditional causal assumptions

8 - Psychotherapy outcome research

History

No treatment for adults is evidence based

Eating disorders only make sense in the light of evolution

Fundamental attribution error

9 - The evolutionary sense of other eating disorders and fatness

ARFID

Bulimia and Binge Eating Disorder

Fatness

Bred to store fat: thrifty genes and healthy brides

Selection by genocide

Epigenetic regulation

Very low-calorie diets

Problems with current conceptions of fat and obesity

"Frankenfoods" and a high fat and sugar diet

Synthetic chemical exposure

10 - Conclusion

Changing the story has social consequences

Mortgaging their future for sport

A deadly double bind

Imagine a world where no one dieted

References

1 - Melissa Espinoza's stories

The scale

Index

A

B

C

D.

E

F

G

H

I

L

M

N

O

P

R

S

T

U

V

W

Y

Back Cover.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Part of the metadata in this record was created by AI, based on the text of the resource.

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780443189050

0443189056

OCLC:

1419871554