The Anorexia-Bulimia Spectrum: an Integrated Approach to Eating and Feeding Disorders

Abstract

Eating and Feeding Disorders are heterogeneous clinical conditions characterized by cognitive, interpersonal, and behavioural features. They might spread across a spectrum of severity, from mild or sub-threshold conditions, belonging to the realm of altered eating habits or body dysmorphic features, to severe disorders. The Anorexia-Bulimia Spectrum (ABS) aims at exploring and describing in a systematic manner this psychological/psychopathological area. The ABS model has been proposed to detect, in a lifetime perspective, signs and symptoms that might be considered as clinically relevant or not, but evenly associated with different levels of subjective impairment. To detect the eating disorder spectrum phenomenology, a structured clinical interview has been built and validated, the Anorexic-Bulimic Spectrum Clinical Interview (SCI-ABS). The paper describes its clinical significance and potential implications.