Question

You are treating Patient T, a 22-year-old male. Enrolled in university has caused a significant amount of stress which has resulted in Patient T developing an eating disorder. As a medical assistant, explain your role in assisting Patient T and how you will assist in information delivery (education) and the treatment process.

Answer 1

Men with eating disorders have far more treatment options than a decade ago but their needs still go largely unaddressed in what remains a female-centric realm. That’s cause for concern, warn experts on eating disorders, especially considering the difficulty of getting men into treatment in the first place.

“There is already enormous stigma for having something that is considered a ‘female problem’,” says Tom Wooldridge, assistant professor of psychology at Golden Gate University in San Francisco, California.

Though research over the past decade indicates men account for a quarter of cases of eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia — far more than previously believed — treatment is still largely geared toward women. In fact, it even exists at the diagnosis stage. Among the factors identified as possible indicators of an eating disorder, for example, is irregular menstruation.