Prevalence of disordered eating behaviors in diabetics probed

December 11, 2008

AUGUSTA, Ga. - Children with diabetes are at an increased risk for developing eating disorders and researchers want to know if it's their disease or treatment that's to blame.

"Diabetes treatment prescribes obsessive food behavior, such as carbohydrate restriction," said Dr. Deborah Young-Hyman, pediatric psychologist in the Medical College of Georgia's Georgia Prevention Institute. "We want to know if those prescribed behaviors contribute to disordered eating and/or whether there are physiological mechanisms which prevent children with diabetes from controlling their eating behavior. For example, treatment with insulin makes you hungry and can cause you to gain weight."

There is some unfortunate synergy: diabetes makes it difficult to control blood glucose and disordered eating behavior does as well, Dr. Young-Hyman said.

Over the next three years, with funding from the American Diabetes Association, she and researchers at Emory and Harvard universities will study 90 children age 10-17 newly-diagnosed with diabetes or transitioning to an insulin pump. They will monitor treatment patterns, weight, psychological adjustment and attitudes about weight and eating. They'll also look at changes in eating patterns and blood sugar levels in response to insulin.

Children and their parents will answer computer-based questionnaires about eating behaviors and psychological adjustment - in the context of their disease and its treatment.

These include questions about parental attitudes, family factors, personality of the child and parents and perceived societal attitudes.

"As they are diagnosed and are adjusting to diabetes treatment, children are already dealing with all sorts of issues that put them at an increased risk for eating disorders. The psychological issues that come with the diagnosis can add to that risk," she said. "There is also the existing drive for thinness that exists in our society, dealing with the diagnosis and management of a long-term illness and the psychological adjustment that comes with that."

Even the insulin the children must take may be a factor. "Large doses can lead to uncontrolled hunger, which can be mislabeled as disordered eating behavior. Patients with type 1 diabetes also lose amylin production - a hormone responsible for gastric emptying and associated with feelings of fullness - that can also lead to increased feelings of hunger," Dr. Young-Hyman said.

Study findings could support a different treatment approach.

"We might come to understand that putting a child or adolescent on an insulin pump sooner rather than later and providing them with a more flexible nutrition regimen could decrease their insulin needs and prevent excess hunger," she said. "If we don't approach weight control as dieting, place less emphasis on food restriction and focus on healthy nutrition and usual eating patterns, we can help patients gain more control over their eating behaviors and their treatment without adoption of maladaptive weight management strategies. Studies indicate that feeling in control of your illness is one of the keys to successful treatment and good psychological adjustment."

Medical College of Georgia

PSYCHOLOGICAL ADJUSTMENT OF SIBLINGS TO A CHILD WITH DIABETES.(Statistical Data Included): An article from: Health and Social Work
by Colin Hollidge (Author)

This digital document is an article from Health and Social Work, published by National Association of Social Workers on February 1, 2001. The length of the article is 7564 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: PSYCHOLOGICAL ADJUSTMENT OF SIBLINGS TO A CHILD WITH DIABETES.(Statistical Data Included)
Author: Colin Hollidge
Publication: Health and Social Work (Refereed)
Date: February 1, 2001
Publisher: National Association of Social Workers
Volume: 26 Issue: 1 Page: 15

Article Type: Statistical Data Included

Distributed by Thomson...

Affect, Creative Experience, And Psychological Adjustment (The Series in Clinical and Community Psychology)
by Sandra W. Russ (Editor)

Previously neglected, more and more "affect and creativity" is recognized as an area that is important to research and exciting to investigate. Affect, Creative Experience, and Psychological Adjustment presents the very latest ideas and research by leaders in the field about the role of affect in the creative process. This book is an arena where new theories and concepts are presented, research findings compared and discussed, methodological issues wrestled with, and future research directions outlined. This volume addresses the key questions in this emerging area through a superb balance of strong research and a presentation of current concepts and syntheses as groundwork for future empirical investigations.

Psychology Applied to Modern Life: Adjustment in the 21st Century (Available Titles Cengagenow)
by Wayne Weiten (Author), Dana S Dunn (Author), Elizabeth Yost Hammer (Author)

Filled with comprehensive, balanced coverage of classic and contemporary research, relevant examples, and engaging applications, this book shows you how psychology helps you understand yourself and the world--and uses psychological principles to illuminate the variety of opportunities you have in your life and your future career. While professors cite this bestselling book for its academic credibility and the authors' ability to stay current with 'hot topics,' students say it's one text they just don't want to stop reading. The book and associated workbook are highly readable, engaging, and visually appealing, providing you with a wealth of material you can put to use every day.

Parental Expectations of Chinese Immigrants for Children's School Achievement: Sociocultural Context, Psychological Adjustment, and Educational Consequences
by Jun Li (Author), Richard A. Young (Contributor)

Examines the experiences of multi-generational immigrants to Canada from the People's Republic of China.

South Korean High School Parachute Kids in Southern California: Academic, Psychological Adjustment and Identity Formation
by Boon Soon Byun (Author)

This study uses ethnographic interviews to explore the academic and sociopsychological adjustment of ten South Korean parachute students attending high school in Southern California. These interviews reveal a complex story about the lives of Korean parachute kids. Most were not doing well enough in South Korea to assure they could secure a higher education there, especially in a highly competitive system of higher education. Attending school in the United States was a transnational solution to this competitive system even if it meant that these students would live there without their parents. While they all experienced different levels of adjustment and conflict in the United States, they were all committed to pursuing a higher education here and even securing a job after...

Continuity and Change in Social Life: Structural and Psychological Adjustment in Poland
by Kazimierz M. Slomczynski (Author), Sandra T. Marquart-Pyatt (editors) (Author)

The research presented in this volume attempts to integrate two approaches to studying social structure: relational and distributional. In accordance with sociological tradition, an analysis of social structure in terms of social relations, particularly relations involving the control and subordination of certain social groups to others, can be identified as the social-class approach. Another approach, the social-stratification approach, concentrates on analyzing the distribution of commonly desired goods, for which the central question is who gets what, through what channels, and with what consequences. These two models of analysis are interrelated, as has been also demonstrated in two previous volumes, Social Patterns of Being Political and Social Structure: Changes and Linkages, both...

Patterns of Adjustment (McGraw-Hill series in psychology)
by Richard S. Lazarus (Author)

Turns in the Road: Narrative Studies of Lives in Transition
by American Psychological Association (Author), Dan P. McAdams (Editor), Ruthellen Josselson (Editor)

How do people make meaning out of the transitions in their lives? In T urns in the Road: Narrative Studies of Lives in Transition, accomplish ed scholars explore highly personalized life narratives to help us und erstand significant transitions and turning points in the human life c ourse. Their analyses reveal the nuances of such transitions as adoles cents gaining a stronger sense of identity, recent graduates taking th eir place in the world of work, a young man struggling to overcome add iction, and middle-aged women coming to terms with divorce. Uniting th em all are dramatic epiphanies and conversions that lead to a new sens e of self in the world.

Depression, Stress, and Adaptations in the Elderly: Psychological Assessment and Intervention
by Prem S. Fry (Author)