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| Questions to ask when an eating disorder is suspected*
- What is your ideal weight?
- What weight would you like to be?
- What was your heaviest weight? Achieved when?
- Why is it so important to lose weight?
- What are the best features of your body?
- When did you have your first period? Last period?
- How regular are your periods?
- Do you ever binge eat? How often? Why?
- What do you eat on a typical day?
- What have you eaten over the past 24 hours?
- What exercise do you do? What do you exercise for?
- What is the timing? (is it taken to compensate for a recent binge?)
- Do you feel "driven" to exercise (e.g., do you continue to exercise
while injured or underweight, or while social and work priorities
suffer)?
- Do you use smoking (or other drugs) to suppress your appetite or as a
substitute for eating?
- Do you vomit after eating?
- Do you use laxatives?
* The dieting disorders chapter of Management of mental disorders
(listed in recommended reading) includes an "Eating behaviour
assessment interview" for full assessment, and a self-report
"Eating attitudes test" (EAT-40) with scoring package and
interpretative notes. See also Goldenring and Cohen for good general
questions for adolescents.27
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