Psychological and medical problems in prevention and treatment of eating disorders among people with type 1 diabetes

Abstract

Eating disorders have been recognized as a serious clinical problem in developing countries. They can also cause many mental and physical disorders in adolescents and young adults. A lot of patients with type 1 diabetes frequently manipulate with insulin doses in order to control their body weight. This phenomenon is known as diabulimia. Type 1 diabetes and eating disorders usually affect teenagers and young adults and can lead to serious health consequences. Very often they are not noticed by social environment. However, they may be recognized relatively early by a diabetologist, if he is aware of this possibility, basing on the patient’s somatic symptoms. Due to the growing problem of eating disorders among people with type 1 diabetes we decided to look at this phenomenon and to draw attention to its characteristics, risk factors, ways of treatment and interventions in cases of suspecting diabulimia.