Letter to the editor: health professionals’ attitudes toward individuals with eating disorders: who do we think they are?

Health professionals are not immune to stigmatizing attitudes and stereotypes found in society-at-large. Along with patients and their loved ones, treatment providers are important stakeholders – and gatekeepers – in the successful delivery of mental healthcare. Prevailing attitudes among professionals can facilitate timely recognition, enable access to care and uptake of evidence-based practices, or undermine help-seeking and therapeutic engagement. At an interactive activity at the 2016 Nordic Eating Disorders Society (NEDS) meeting, we asked health professionals to describe individuals with eating disorders. The most common descriptive term used was “anxiety” followed by “thin”, “sad”, “control”, "female", and "suffering/pain". Further research on professionals’ attitudes toward individuals with eating disorders is necessary to inform education, awareness, and advocacy efforts following the diagnostic revisions in the DSM-5.