Struggling with Food 

What does research say about being a college student struggling with an eating disorder? 

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Around 10 to 20 percent of female students and 4 to 10 percent of male students suffer from an eating disorder, a rate increased by 15 to 28 percent in recent years according to The Emily Program.  

This rate is further increased for people who are transgender or gender nonconforming.  

“There are some folks sometimes with very severe eating disorders who actually manage their schooling pretty well,” said Dr. Kyle De Young, a psychology professor who specializes in eating disorders. “That’s probably not the typical presentation, but it can happen. And more typically, yeah, there’s pretty substantial interference. It’s hard to concentrate cognitively, hard to be at your best in terms of the kind of things you have to do in college and to perform well in courses when you’re not fed and nourished well, when you’re distracted by hunger, when you’re preoccupied by what you just ate or what you might eat later, and you have trouble concentrating.” 

Dr. De Young stated that those with eating disorders “have either the highest or second highest mortality rate of mental health problems, the highest other one being substance use disorders with opioid drugs in particular.”  

“But the methodology there often relies on post-mortem diagnosis,” Dr. De Young Specified. “If you allow that, then eating disorders are [the] second most deadly mental disorder.” 

Additionally, Dr. De Young said the average eating disorder lasts between 7 and 9 years, an entire chapter within a person’s life. 

Later in the interview, Dr. De Young discussed some of the causes of eating disorder development.  

“There’s very clearly a large genetic component to eating disorders,” Dr. De Young said. “Some eating disorders have as much of a genetic contribution as any other mental health problem…certainly our culture has an extremely strong focus on appearance and, in particular, on thinness or fitness. And some of these are gender specific, some of them are not. But these body types are idealized, and they’re unachievable, arguably for very large numbers of people. Most everyone can’t look the way that our culture idealizes. But that doesn’t stop people from trying and feeling inadequate when they don’t look a certain way. And if folks might believe that certain behaviors could help them achieve a certain appearance, they may try those things out. And some eating disorder behaviors might sort of be, bless her, might be almost the side effect of trying to do certain things.” 

Dr. De Young also said, “my own interest involves some of the circadian regulation of eating behavior, which can also be understood to be biological but on a daily time scale and how the regulation of daily rhythms can kind of bring some of these behaviors more into normal limits, so to speak, and help folks manage their behavior if that’s something they want to do.” 

Eating disorders are especially harmful to the people who are suffering from them and one of the hardest disorders to treat.  

They are two common treatments: psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy.  

In other words, treatment through therapy and treatment through medications.  

“In terms of psychotherapy, it does depend a bit on what specific eating disorders someone is experiencing and what age they are. So, for adolescents, particularly those with anorexia nervosa, and if they’ve got some supportive family structure in place, there’s a treatment called family-based treatment for anorexia nervosa that is hands-down the best option. We can deliver that treatment here in our psychology center on the third floor of biosciences. For adults with anorexia nervosa, unfortunately this is like the most depressing area because, well, we have a number of treatments that we can also deliver here on campus to students,” said Dr. De Young. 

“In terms of pharmacotherapy, there are a number of options,” Dr. De Young specified. “Broadly speaking, there’s antidepressants. So, most of these are SSRI, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, that have been around for quite some time. Fluoxetine, in particular, has been studied the most, with Gluma Nervosa. And again, in particular, in combination with the cognitive behavioral therapy I mentioned, it works quite well for a lot of people. There are a few other antidepressants sometimes that are used. The other common drug class that’s being used now, in particular for binge eating disorder, are stimulant medications. One that has an FDA indication for binge eating disorder is Vybans, which is also used for ADHD. So, it’s the same exact same type of medication that folks might be familiar with ADHD, but it has a good effect on binge eating disorders.” 

Students who are struggling with an eating condition or are unsure if they have one are encouraged to schedule a meeting with the psychological center on campus, which has a specific program for students struggling with eating disorders.