ED Deep Dive #3: OSFED and UFED
Now that we’ve covered the more commonly recognized eating disorders like anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating disorder, there are other eating disorders recognized by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), 5th edition, that aren’t as easy to identify or neatly package into one of these categories. These are known as other specified feeding and eating disorders (OSFED) and unspecified feeding or eating disorders (UFED).
These types of eating disorders are newer to the spectrum of diagnoses, having only been added to the DSM-5 in 2013. Before this, they were considered eating disorders not otherwise specified, or EDNOS. Now, they can be more neatly broken down in the following ways.
Other specified feeding and eating disorders (OSFED)
The term OSFED can be used to identify behaviors that mimic some of the signs and symptoms of more commonly diagnosed eating disorders but with variations in terms of behaviors and frequency. OSFED can be broken down further into the following examples.
Atypical anorexia nervosa (of low frequency and/or limited duration) — Criteria for AN are met, but weight is within or above the “normal” range.
Bulimia nervosa (of low frequency and/or limited duration) — Criteria for BN are met except that binge eating and compensatory behaviors occur at a lower frequency.
Binge eating disorder (of low frequency and/or limited duration) — Criteria for BED are met, except that binge eating occurs less than once a week and for less than 3 months.
Purging disorder — Recurrent purging to influence weight or body shape, in the absence of binge eating.
Night eating syndrome — Recurrent episodes of night eating defined as eating after awakening from sleep, or excessive eating after an evening meal, and not explainable by other mental health disorders.
Unspecified feeding or eating disorders (UFED)
Eating and body image issues that still don’t fit into any of the categories above can be classified as UFED. With UFED, there is usually not enough information to make a diagnosis but eating and/or body image issues are significant enough to cause distress or impairment in an individual’s daily life.
A clinician also may use UFED when there are not sufficient criteria to make a more specific diagnosis.
To see a full list of diagnostic criteria, warning signs, and health consequences, click here for OSFED and here for UFED.
Thank you to the National Eating Disorders Association for further clarification of these eating disorders.
