Other specified feeding or eating disorders (OSFED)

Meet the patient

A 19-year-old dance student is referred because her periods have stopped. Her BMI reads 23 — "reassuring," the GP wrote in the referral letter. She has lost 18 kg in five months. Her heart rate is 42, her standing blood pressure drops to 88 over 52, and her phosphate sits low at 0.55 mmol per litre. She runs 10 km a day and is terrified of regain.[3][4]

She does not meet anorexia nervosa — her weight is not "significantly low." She meets atypical anorexia nervosa, and she is medically unstable on a normal BMI. Two questions the examiner will fire at you: "Is she safe for outpatient psychiatry?" and "What makes this OSFED and not AN — and why is the distinction a trap?" This whole topic is the answer to both.[3][16]

References16Show ledgerHide ledger

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