Even those clinicians who have a special expertise in the treatment of eating disorders frequently find themselves in despair after trying unsuccessfully to persuade a seriously ill patient to accept treatment. This book can help. Eating disorders are causing increasing problems in our society, and many approaches to treatment are used, some more successful than others. 

This book provides therapists and students with practical and evidence-based guidance on diagnosis and treatment of anorexia nervosa (AN), bulimia nervosa (BN), eating disorders not otherwise specified (EDNOS), and binge eating disorder (BED). Building on existing knowledge as well as the enormous wealth of clinical experience that the authors have developed over the past three decades, it describes a successful, evidence-based approach. It will thus be of interest not only to those clinicians who have developed a special expertise in eating disorders, but to psychologists, psychiatrists, general practitioners, dieticians, social workers, nurses, and other allied mental health practitioners as well.

1.7 Diagnostic Procedures and Documentation (p. 14)

There are numerous established standardized and semistructured diagnostic tests, interviews, and self-report questionnaires for ascertaining the presence and degree of severity of ED symptomatology for the various types of EDs, as well as for assessing change in these symptoms over the course of treatment. We will review the most widely used and most well-validated of these measures. The user should be aware of strengths and weaknesses of different types of diagnostic information. Standardized assessment is useful for more than just research purposes, these instruments have the advantage of providing consistent and comprehensive information regarding the presence and severity of symptoms, as well as allowing one to monitor improvements or deterioration in these (Pike, 2005). Finally, such instruments provide established norms against which to compare a given patient’s clinical status.
Interviews are generally agreed to provide the most accurate information about a patient’s actual symptoms, and are less influenced by self-presentation concerns that may color responses to questionnaire measures. However, extensive training, sensitivity, and expertise are required to perform a thorough and accurate interview.