Why Most Doctors Don't Help People with Eating Disorders

I had an unusual conversation with a gastroenterologist last week. She explained the situation with a mutual patient including the results of several tests, the likely diagnosis and treatment plan. That was all par for the course. She then asked my opinion, as someone who treats people with eating disorders, both for the best psychological approach to treatment and also for any other thoughts about possible diagnoses. 

This last question, one of collaboration and respect, is very rare in the medical treatment of people with eating disorders. What was just as surprising is that the doctor was not writing in the chart, taking to a staff member in the office or hailing a taxi while on the phone, all common occurrences during doctor to doctor calls. 

It is unusual to find doctors who have the time to talk, listen and collaborate. Patients with eating disorders need that medical approach to get help. Sadly, they tend to give up and ignore the issue rather than face the frustration of seeing doctors who are unable to find any reasonable cause for their symptoms. 

Medical problems associated with eating disorders are complex and out of the norm for a general doctor or specialist to see. One fundamental complication is that malnutrition both in terms of underfeeding and low levels of vitamins and minerals are central to the problem, something doctors learn next to nothing about.

The malnutrition is often different from general starvation due to lack of food. This malnutrition is specific to a world packed with food with no nutritional value. People will often eat some food but will have very inadequate nutrition.

Since doctors in the first world know little about the possible causes, they search for causes of illness as if the person does not have an eating disorder and ignore possibilities likely only to be seen in these patients. 

Any useful medical work-up has to include the expertise of a primary doctor or specialist and a doctor well versed in the medical problems associated with eating disorders to be effective. 

Many diagnoses are common for patients with eating disorders but otherwise would not come up on a doctor's radar: gastroparesis (delayed stomach emptying) that can be treated with food, kidney damage from malnutrition, odd mineral deficiencies such as low blood copper levels, high cholesterol from chronic anorexia and neurological swallowing difficulties from years of purging. 

The truth is that textbooks about eating disorders focus on the medical effects which occur in the first few months of starvation but not those that come after years of eating disorder symptoms. Accurate diagnosis relies on persistent doctors willing to collaborate and think outside the box to find an answer. 

The current state of medicine encourages short visits, minimal time spent on history and physical exam and no attention to detail. This situation leaves the patient with an eating disorder out in the cold. However, doctors like the one I spoke to last week can help create an environment that gives hope for better care.

For the patient with an eating disorder, it's worth looking into finding the right doctors and not settling for the most convenient ones. A doctor with time to think and collaborate will help maintain health through the process of recovery. A doctor who simply sends for a few blood tests will not help at all.