Overview
A high school student allows herself to eat less than six hundred calories a day. Months go by as her body withers. Her friends and family are aghast at her emaciated appearance. Nevertheless, she still agonizes over being "too fat." A college student regularly downs six or seven thousand calories in a single hour. Then she makes herself throw up before her body can digest the massive amount of food.
Eating disorders like these affect five million people each year in America alone, and many more millions in other countries. Ninety percent of those who have eating disorders are females. More than ten percent of the people hospitalized with anorexia nervosa will die as a result of the disease.
Drug Therapy and Eating Disorders tells the stories of two young women who struggle with anorexia and bulimia and how they found help. Although eating disorders are among the most difficult of psychiatric illnesses to treat, new advances in care are being made. Many individuals with eating disorders are helped by concerned health professionals and by treatment programs that use the latest medical, behavioral, and pharmacological therapies. In this book, you will learn about eating disorders, the devastating effects they can have, and the treatments that can bring hope back to sufferers' emaciated lives.
Examines various eating disorders, their symptoms and manifestations, how they can be controlled and treated, and what it is like to live with an eating disorder.
Synopsis
A high school student allows herself to eat less than six hundred calories a day. Months go by as her body withers. Her friends and family are aghast at her emaciated appearance. Nevertheless, she still agonizes over being "too fat." A college student regularly downs six or seven thousand calories in a single hour. Then she makes herself throw up before her body can digest the massive amount of food.
Eating disorders like these affect five million people each year in America alone, and many more millions in other countries. Ninety percent of those who have eating disorders are females. More than ten percent of the people hospitalized with anorexia nervosa will die as a result of the disease.
Drug Therapy and Eating Disorders tells the stories of two young women who struggle with anorexia and bulimia and how they found help. Although eating disorders are among the most difficult of psychiatric illnesses to treat, new advances in care are being made. Many individuals with eating disorders are helped by concerned health professionals and by treatment programs that use the latest medical, behavioral, and pharmacological therapies. In this book, you will learn about eating disorders, the devastating effects they can have, and the treatments that can bring hope back to sufferers' emaciated lives.
Sarah Cofer - VOYA
This informative series covers common child and adolescent psychiatric disorders and the drugs that treat them. Drug Therapy and Eating Disorders creatively educates its readers by intertwining the medical facts around a fictitious e-mail correspondence between Lindsay, a high school student plagued with anorexia, and Gina, a college student in recovery from bulimia and working at an eating disorder treatment center. Lindsay writes to Gina to ask questions, express her emotions, and reveal the devastating physical changes that her body is going through. Gina's responses are intermixed with factual data that the author has gleaned from medical references such as the DSM IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, 4th Ed.). The book contains six short chapters that cover a history of the disorder, a history of drugs, how drugs work, treatments, risks and side effects of drugs, and alternative and supplementary treatments. Drug Therapy and Childhood and Adolescent Disorders follows a similar format. Instead of using an e-mail correspondence, however, this book uses life stories about children and parents dealing with anomalies such as tic disorders (Tourette's), autism, attention-deficit and disruptive behavior, and mental retardation. Both books contain the same introduction, forward, similar chapters, and some of the same text. These series titles are highly informative, with in-depth explanations about each disorder, brain functions, drug research, and treatments. There are glossaries throughout each book to help define medical terms. The human touch that the stories add to these information-laden books make this series one that teens could read and possibly relate to. Theinformation is rather advanced with plenty of detail about brain chemistry and the different classes of drugs such as MAOI's (Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitors). The books will be helpful for school assignments and for teens who are afflicted with these particular disorders and are recommended purchases for libraries serving grades seven and up. (Psychiatric Disorders: Drugs and Psychology for the Mind and Body). VOYA CODES: 3Q 2P J S (Readable without serious defects; For the YA with a special interest in the subject; Junior High, defined as grades 7 to 9; Senior High, defined as grades 10 to 12). 2004, Mason Crest, 128p.; Glossary. Index. Illus. Photos. Further Reading., PLB. Ages 12 to 18.
Editorials
Children's Literature
Do you know of someone who has an intense fear of getting fat? Or maybe they weigh far below what they should but still deny that they are underweight. These symptoms are part of anorexia nervosa. Perhaps you have heard of someone who binges on a large amount of food and maybe purges it afterward by throwing it up or by taking laxatives. Symptoms like these are part of the other widely known eating disorder, bulimia nervosa. These eating disorders affect more than five million people each year, most of whom are females. With a society pushing thinness it is no wonder young girls try to "fit in" and look like models they see on TV. Some feel that they are never thin enough and turn to outrageous, even dangerous ways to keep from gaining weight. This educational book describes eating disorders and their risks in details and language simple enough for the adolescent as well as the adult to understand. Readers will learn how eating disorders are helped through medication and behavioral therapy. This book is an excellent source to teach teens about the dangers of anorexia and bulimia. Once again the author has done a superb job in writing as she has in other books in this series, "Psychiatric Disorders: Drug and Psychology for the Mind and Body." 2004, Mason Crest Publishers, Ages 12 up.—Cathi I. White
VOYA
This informative series covers common child and adolescent psychiatric disorders and the drugs that treat them. Drug Therapy and Eating Disorders creatively educates its readers by intertwining the medical facts around a fictitious e-mail correspondence between Lindsay, a high school student plagued with anorexia, and Gina, a college student in recovery from bulimia and working at an eating disorder treatment center. Lindsay writes to Gina to ask questions, express her emotions, and reveal the devastating physical changes that her body is going through. Gina's responses are intermixed with factual data that the author has gleaned from medical references such as the DSM IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, 4th Ed.). The book contains six short chapters that cover a history of the disorder, a history of drugs, how drugs work, treatments, risks and side effects of drugs, and alternative and supplementary treatments. Drug Therapy and Childhood and Adolescent Disorders follows a similar format. Instead of using an e-mail correspondence, however, this book uses life stories about children and parents dealing with anomalies such as tic disorders (Tourette's), autism, attention-deficit and disruptive behavior, and mental retardation. Both books contain the same introduction, forward, similar chapters, and some of the same text. These series titles are highly informative, with in-depth explanations about each disorder, brain functions, drug research, and treatments. There are glossaries throughout each book to help define medical terms. The human touch that the stories add to these information-laden books make this series one that teens could read and possibly relate to. Theinformation is rather advanced with plenty of detail about brain chemistry and the different classes of drugs such as MAOI's (Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitors). The books will be helpful for school assignments and for teens who are afflicted with these particular disorders and are recommended purchases for libraries serving grades seven and up. (Psychiatric Disorders: Drugs and Psychology for the Mind and Body). VOYA CODES: 3Q 2P J S (Readable without serious defects; For the YA with a special interest in the subject; Junior High, defined as grades 7 to 9; Senior High, defined as grades 10 to 12). 2004, Mason Crest, 128p.; Glossary. Index. Illus. Photos. Further Reading., PLB. Ages 12 to 18.—Sarah Cofer