ArticleEuropean eating disorders review : the journal of the Eating Disorders Association2025
Clinicians' confidence in diagnosing atypical anorexia nervosa: An experimental study of the role of patient and clinician characteristics.
Article in European eating disorders review : the journal of the Eating Disorders Association, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed.
- A Weight-Inclusive Approach to Restrictive Eating Disorders: De-Centering Weight.The International journal of eating disorders · 2026Review
- Psychometric characteristics of DSM-5 eating disorder diagnostic criteria: support for a transdiagnostic approach.Journal of eating disorders · 2026Article
- The Thorny Issue of Atypical Anorexia Nervosa: Clinicians' Perspectives on How It Should Be Defined.European eating disorders review : the journal of the Eating Disorders Association · 2025Article
- Clinicians' confidence in diagnosing atypical anorexia nervosa: An experimental study of the role of patient and clinician characteristics.European eating disorders review : the journal of the Eating Disorders Association · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveThis experimental study investigated the weight loss parameters and resulting end weight that influence clinician confidence in diagnosing atypical anorexia nervosa (AAN).
methodsClinicians (N = 67) read a series of vignettes where patient weight loss and end weight varied, then rated their confidence in an AAN diagnosis and alternatives. Using repeated measures ANOVAs, we examined patient (weight loss, end weight) and the possible relationship between clinician (e.g., age, profession) characteristics and confidence in diagnosing AAN.
resultsClinicians were most confident in an AAN diagnosis when patients had lost 10% or 15% of their body weight, leaving them at a high or normal weight. Clinicians considered 5% as significant weight loss for AAN, but only when the patient ended at a high or normal weight. However, they did not clearly differentiate AAN from unspecified feeding and eating disorder (UFED) when there was a 5% weight loss resulting in high or normal end weight. Clinician characteristics did not impact on confidence in diagnoses.
conclusionThe DSM's 'significant weight loss' criterion leaves room for clinicians to interpret it idiosyncratically. The lack of a clear pattern of UFED and AAN diagnosis has important clinical implications, as UFED tends to be dismissed as being less serious.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.