Eating Disorders


Eating Disorders are conditions in which there is a serious disturbance in the way someone deals with food, weight and body image.

Anorexia nervosa (anorexia) is where a person has an intense fear of putting on weight and will severely limit the amount of food they eat and will reduce their weight to an unhealthily low level.

Bulimia nervosa (bulimia) is an eating disorder in which people have cycles of eating too much in a short space of time (often in secret). They then have a feeling of shame or guilt for over-eating, so find ways of getting rid of the food. This may be though vomiting, taking laxatives, excessive exercise, fasting or a combination of some or all of these.

Binge-Eating People with binge-eating disorder frequently eat large amounts of food while feeling a loss of control over their eating. This disorder is different from binge-purge syndrome (bulimia nervosa) because people with binge-eating disorder usually do not purge afterwards by vomiting or using laxatives.

Click here for symptoms of Eating Disorders

Treating Eating Disorders

Cardinal Clinic has many years experience with dealing with Eating Disorders and has a dedicated team consisting of:

  • Consultant Psychiatrists
  • Consultant Psychologists
  • Nutritional Therapists
  • Physiotherapist
  • Eating Disorder Nurses
  • Family Therapist

Patients are nutritionally assessed and given a dietary prescription to help resolve their disordered eating patterns. Weight management may also be discussed

There is a lot of emphasis on psychological therapy to help to identify and treat the underlying reasons for the Eating Disorder. Patients receive a large amount of individual treatment to compliment the group programme which helps address these underlying reasons and to learn coping techniques to apply upon leaving the Clinic.

Physiotherapy can be a very important part of recovery for many patients. Our fully trained physiotherapist has a special interest in Eating Disorders and provides exercise education as well.

Cardinal Clinic offers full support for the families and carers. There is always a member of the eating disorder team to speak with for advice or support.

Click here to download our "Eating Disorders Leaflet"