Eating Disorders in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
Preface
Tr e a t i n g E a t i n g D i s o r d e r s i n
Children and Adolescents: An
Update
James Lock, MD, PhD
Jennifer Derenne, MD
Editors
It was a pleasure to edit this issue of Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North
America focused on eating disorders. Despite the fact that eating disorders retain the
distinction of having the highest mortality of all mental illnesses, access to appropriate
treatment remains problematic for many youth and their families. Outcomes data suggest that there is still much room for improvement, but ongoing research strives to better understand biological vulnerabilities to the illness, develop innovative treatments,
and establish a strong evidence base to support those interventions.
Many child and adolescent psychiatrists feel underprepared to assess and make
treatment recommendations for patients with eating disorders. All the same, with a
relative dearth of subspecialty providers available, general child and adolescent psychiatrists are often asked to evaluate and treat these patients. They are also likely to
encounter disordered eating in the context of their work with other patients; eating disorders are highly comorbid with mood, anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorders, substance use disorders, and personality disorders. Careful child and adolescent
psychiatrists need to consider disordered eating when evaluating psychiatric symptoms that could be a manifestation of malnutrition.
For this reason, we decided to curate this issue of the Child and Adolescent
Psychiatric Clinics of North America with an eye toward updating clinical recommendations for treating anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge-eating disorder, and
avoidant restrictive food intake disorder in children, adolescents, and transitional
age youth. In addition to reviewing the evidence base for outpatient psychotherapeutic
treatments, we include articles on higher levels of care, psychopharmacology in child
and adolescent eating disorders, and a review of the medical complications of eating
disorders as well as the assessment and treatment of malnutrition. We round out the
Child Adolesc Psychiatric Clin N Am 28 (2019) xiii–xiv
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chc.2019.06.001
1056-4993/19/ª 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
childpsych.theclinics.com
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Preface
issue with articles on genetic contributions and the neurobiological basis for the development of eating disorders and conclude with a discussion of underrepresented populations (including male adolescents), and ways in which technology can be
harnessed to aid in the successful treatment of eating disorders.
We are grateful to our contributing authors for sharing their research findings and
clinical wisdom, and for the time and effort involved in this undertaking.
James Lock, MD, PhD
Psychiatry and Behavioral
Sciences and Pediatrics
Division of Child and
Adolescent Psychiatry
Eating Disorder Program
Stanford University School of Medicine
401 Quarry Road
MC 5719
Stanford, CA 94305, USA
Jennifer Derenne, MD
Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Comprehensive Care Program
Division of Child and
Adolescent Psychiatry
Stanford University School of Medicine
401 Quarry Road
MC 5719
Stanford, CA 94305, USA
E-mail addresses:
jimlock@stanford.edu (J. Lock)
jderenne@stanford.edu (J. Derenne)