'Tales from a specialist eating disorders unit' - a TAP Talk by Andrew Newton Cox

On October 16 a substantial audience welcomed Andrew Newton-Cox, who presented an absorbing and informative talk entitled `Tales from a specialist eating disorders unit’ which was based on Andrew’s first hand experiences with patients within his unit.  The audience heard how 725,000 people in the UK currently suffer from eating disorders, the most prolific being Anorexia Nervosa which involves deliberate weight loss.

Andrew showed pictures of typical sufferers of Anorexia Nervosa, in which the similarity to images of concentration camp prisoners was immediately apparent.  In these cases the patient will still regard themselves as `fat`. The role of some magazines was discussed and the image that is often presented to the reader of wafer thin models as being the norm, such magazines are banned from Andrew’s unit and internet usage is closely monitored.

It’s estimated that it costs £8000 a week to provide an` In Patient` stay for each sufferer of an eating disorder within a specialised unit.  Help is often sought by the family of the sufferer but sometimes the Mental Health Act is invoked to impose treatment on the sufferer as death is a real possibility from this destructive addiction.   Purging by the sufferer removes electrolytes from the body, dangerously lowers pulse rate and blood pressure and seriously increases the risk of heart failure.
 
On admission to the unit a patient will assessed and a healthy eating regime will be imposed upon them which consists of six meals a day, which are closely monitored and have to be eaten.   The close watch is essential because patients may dispose of food surreptitiously, for example by scraping away the edge of a biscuit to make it smaller.  On weigh days a patient may attempt to deceive by putting stones in their pockets or drinking copious amounts of water through the night before.
​
Finishing on an optimistic note Andrew emphasized that people do recover to lead fulfilling lives and that the intense treatment described is far from being a lost cause.  A warm round of applause followed the vote of thanks given by TAP council member Ian Stevenson.