Re-posted from Cleveland Center for Eating Disorders (CCED) blog archives. CCED and The Emily Program partnered in 2014.
Males are historically underrepresented throughout the eating disorder field- as patients, treatment professionals, by diagnosis and prevalence, in research studies, and in stories of recovery. 30 years ago men with eating disorders were virtually invisible and options for treatment were mostly non-existent. Fortunately, we are at a tipping point in our understanding of males and eating disorders. While major gaps still exist in our understanding, we are continuously learning more about males with ED.
According to the National Comorbidity Study (Hudson, 2007), lifetime prevalence in ED in men is:
Anorexia Nervosa- 0.3%
Bulimia Nervosa- 0.5%
Binge Eating Disorder- 2%
In this study, over 50% of men also had co-morbidities.
In a study by Striegel-Moore, et al in 2009, over 26% of men in the community had ED symptomatology.