Eating Disorders and Obesity: A Comprehensive Handbook . 3rd ed. by Kelly D. Brownell and B. Timothy Walsh (review)

Abstract

issn 0362-4021 © 2018 Eastern Group Psychotherapy Society group, Vol. 42, No. 1, Spring 2018 65 1 Correspondence should be addressed to Fran Weiss, LCSW-R, BCD, DCSW, CGP, 121 West 82nd Street, Suite 2B, New York, NY 10024. E-mail: biddoc@franweiss.com. Book Review Eating Disorders and Obesity: A Comprehensive Handbook. 3rd ed. Edited by Kelly D. Brownell and B. Timothy Walsh. New York: Guilford Press, 2017, 690 pp. Reviewed by Fran Weiss1 Articles abound in the popular media on weight loss techniques, food addiction, and eating disorders. We have a serious problem at hand! The World Health Organization has identified childhood obesity as one of the most serious global public health challenges of the twenty-first century. By 2020, the number of overnourished children will exceed the number who are undernourished (p. 355). Obesity is a global issue. In the United States, more than one-third of adults (34.9%) and approximately 17% of children are obese. Anorexia nervosa has the highest mortality rate among mental disorders. There are alarmingly few empirically supported treatments. Similarly, we have no perfect prevention or effective treatment for bulimia nervosa. The newly accepted Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition (DSM–5; American Psychiatric Association, 2013) diagnosis of binge eating disorder does not apply to all those who are obese, yet it is more prevalent than anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa. The term food addiction is controversial but surfaces as a popular branding attempt, although is an unproven entity in the obesity research field. For practitioners in the eating disorder and obesity fields, this handbook separates fact from fiction and provides the most up-to-date, state-of-the-art clinical and scientific information. Six hundred fifty pages long, it is not a book for the faint of heart. The format is an academic style but is very readable. It consists of 108 chapters based on current research and science, written by the most recognized academicians, clinicians, and researchers. Each chapter spans approximately four to eight pages and has relevant references. The book is well organized, and the reader can easily find specific 66 weiss topics of interest. However, reader beware: the content is extremely interesting—you will end up reading more than anticipated. To my surprise, I read all 650 pages in a short period! The handbook offers three broad sections with multiple subsections. The first section describes the foundations of the field, such as the regulation of body weight, and lists the contributory psychological and social factors. In the second section, the authors focus on the clinical characteristics, epidemiology, etiology, treatment, and prevention of eating disorders. Finally, in the third section, the reader learns about obesity, its clinical characteristics, epidemiology, etiology, treatment, and prevention . In my opinion, therapists can easily apply the recommended treatment for each of the eating disorders to group psychotherapy. In sum, the information garnered here is central for anyone who treats this population—individually or in groups. This third edition notes the long-standing scientific and clinical gap between the two distinct fields of eating disorders and obesity, which have existed side by side but have never integrated. The clinical bridge between anorexia, the eating disorder diagnosed for the longest time, bulimia nervosa, and obesity may now be closed with the shared clinical underpinnings of binge eating disorder. The editors argue that an improved exchange of information between the two fields could expand the knowledge of both. Apparently, the prior editions of this handbook called for a better connection between these fields. In this third edition, the editors acknowledge that the fields still stand apart but hope that the growing focus and understanding of the working mechanisms of the brain in eating disorders and obesity may bring them closer together. The exciting new information gathered in this edition generates hope for a population that is exceedingly difficult to treat. Two distinguished experts in the field edited the handbook: Kelly D. Brownell, PhD, is an authority on obesity whose focus is on food policy. He was director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale and is currently dean of the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University. Timothy Walsh...