Michael B. First

Objective: To review the history of the term atypical anorexia nervosa and the challenges surrounding its current description and to propose a new name and diagnostic criteria. Method: We review the use of the term “atypical” in the literature on eating disorders and in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association (DSM) and note several terms in the current description that are in need of clarification. We also describe how the ICD‐11 has grappled with atypical anorexia nervosa. Results: The first use of atypical anorexia nervosa was by Hilde Brȕch to describe individuals who had lost substantial weight but who lacked the characteristic psychological features of anorexia nervosa. In the section on Eating Disorders Not Otherwise Specified, the DSM‐IV included a description of a disorder very similar to the description of atypical anorexia nervosa; the DSM‐5 slightly changed the wording and applied the term atypical anorexia nervosa. Features in the description in need of definition include “significant weight loss” and “normal or above normal weight,” and the current name is problematic. Discussion: We discuss these issues and several potential options for defining features in the current description and for a new name. Following other examples in the DSM‐5‐TR, we propose the disorder be named “anorexia nervosa‐like eating disorder (weight in normal or above normal range)” (acronym: ANLED) and suggest diagnostic criteria which could be included in the DSM‐5‐TR section on Conditions for Further Study.

Recent surveys show rising numbers of young people who report anxiety and depression. Although much attention has focused on mental health of adolescent youth, less attention has been paid to young people as they transition into adulthood. Multiple factors may have contributed to this steady increase: greater exposure to social media, information, and distressing news via personal electronic devices; increased concerns regarding social determinants of health and climate change; and changing social norms due to increased mental health literacy and reduced stigma. The COVID-19 pandemic may have temporarily exacerbated symptoms and impacted treatment availability. Strategies to mitigate causal factors for depression and anxiety in young adults may include education and skills training for cognitive, behavioral, and social coping strategies, as well as healthier use of technology and social media. Policies must support the availability of health insurance and treatment, and clinicians can adapt interventions to encompass the specific concerns and needs of young adults.

Changes made to the DSM Eating Disorders over the years have aimed to reduce the prevalence of the residual DSM Eating Disorder categories (e.g., Other Specified Eating Disorder). Atypical Anorexia Nervosa (AN), included since DSM-IV as an example of a presentation not meeting criteria for a specific eating disorder, appears to be more prevalent than AN. It is defined as meeting all of the criteria for AN except that, after significant weight loss, weight is at or above normal. As suggested by the Walsh et al. review, lack of definitional precision will likely complicate efforts to determine whether atypical AN is best considered a variant of AN or a distinct category. Problems with the current definition of atypical AN include (1) a lack of precision regarding what constitutes "significant " weight loss; (2) whether the weight loss can occur at any point in the individual's lifetime; and (3) whether there an upper limit to weight being above normal. It is suggested that researchers develop consensus diagnostic criteria and assessment tools to facilitate the collection of empirical data about atypical AN in order to lay the groundwork for future decisions about its nosological status.

Structural racism has received renewed focus over the past year, fueled by the convergence of major political and social events. Psychiatry as a field has been forced to confront a legacy of systemic inequities. Here, we use examples from our clinical and supervisory work to highlight the urgent need to integrate techniques addressing racial identity and racism into psychiatric practice and teaching. This urgency is underlined by extensive evidence of psychiatry's long-standing systemic inequities. We argue that our field suffers not from a lack of available techniques, but rather a lack of sustained commitment to understand and integrate those techniques into our work; indeed, there are multiple published examples of strategies to address racism and racial identity in psychiatric clinical practice. We conclude with recommendations geared toward more firmly institutionalizing a focus on racism and racial identity in psychiatry, and suggest applications of existing techniques to our initial clinical examples.

Journal of Medical Internet Research - International Scientific Journal for Medical Research, Information and Communication on the Internet

BACKGROUND The Structured Clinical Interview for DSM (SCID) is considered the gold standard assessment for accurate, reliable psychiatric diagnoses; however, because of its length, complexity, and training required, the SCID is rarely used outside of research. OBJECTIVE This paper aims to describe the development and initial validation of a Web-based, self-report screening instrument (the Screening Assessment for Guiding Evaluation-Self-Report, SAGE-SR) based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) and the SCID-5-Clinician Version (CV) intended to make accurate, broad-based behavioral health diagnostic screening more accessible within clinical care. METHODS First, study staff drafted approximately 1200 self-report items representing individual granular symptoms in the diagnostic criteria for the 8 primary SCID-CV modules. An expert panel iteratively reviewed, critiqued, and revised items. The resulting items were iteratively administered and revised through 3 rounds of cognitive interviewing with community mental health center participants. In the first 2 rounds, the SCID was also administered to participants to directly compare their Likert self-report and SCID responses. A second expert panel evaluated the final pool of items from cognitive interviewing and criteria in the DSM-5 to construct the SAGE-SR, a computerized adaptive instrument that uses branching logic from a screener section to administer appropriate follow-up questions to refine the differential diagnoses. The SAGE-SR was administered to healthy controls and outpatient mental health clinic clients to assess test duration and test-retest reliability. Cutoff scores for screening into follow-up diagnostic sections and criteria for inclusion of diagnoses in the differential diagnosis were evaluated. RESULTS The expert panel reduced the initial 1200 test items to 664 items that panel members agreed collectively represented the SCID items from the 8 targeted modules and DSM criteria for the covered diagnoses. These 664 items were iteratively submitted to 3 rounds of cognitive interviewing with 50 community mental health center participants; the expert panel reviewed session summaries and agreed on a final set of 661 clear and concise self-report items representing the desired criteria in the DSM-5. The SAGE-SR constructed from this item pool took an average of 14 min to complete in a nonclinical sample versus 24 min in a clinical sample. Responses to individual items can be combined to generate DSM criteria endorsements and differential diagnoses, as well as provide indices of individual symptom severity. Preliminary measures of test-retest reliability in a small, nonclinical sample were promising, with good to excellent reliability for screener items in 11 of 13 diagnostic screening modules (intraclass correlation coefficient [ICC] or kappa coefficients ranging from .60 to .90), with mania achieving fair test-retest reliability (ICC=.50) and other substance use endorsed too infrequently for analysis. CONCLUSIONS The SAGE-SR is a computerized adaptive self-report instrument designed to provide rigorous differential diagnostic information to clinicians.