EDITORIAL: Eating disorders in diabetes: Discussion on issues relevant to type 1 diabetes and an overview of the Journal’s special issue

Journal of Eating Disorders 7, Article number: 27 (2019) | Download Citation

Research suggests that women with Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) have close to 2.5 times the risk for developing an eating disorder compared to women without T1DM [1]. Women with T1DM can present with the full range of eating disordered symptoms however, the majority of research is focused only on those involving insulin restriction as a weight control behavior. It is unclear why girls and women with T1DM have increased rates of disordered eating behaviors and diagnosed eating disorders, but T1DM is strongly associated with a number of common eating disorder risk factors. For example, people with diabetes have twice the risk of clinically significant depression than those without diabetes [2]. Women and girls with T1DM also often have a higher BMI than their peers without diabetes [3]. Far less is known about Type 2 Diabetes (T2DM) and eating disorders [4] but management can be similarly challenging when it is comorbid with an eating disorder.