Doody's Book Review

This book addresses the recent emergence of eating disorders in various areas of the world, particularly in the newly developing parts of Asia, Africa, and Eastern Europe, with a special emphasis on cultural, social, and economic perspectives. This book debates the current sociocultural model and argues that this complex array of disorders is more than a simple appearance-based concern. The purpose is to provide an international perspective to eating disorders outside of the western phenomenon. It addresses various issues such as the validity of prevalence rates of eating disorders throughout the world, the implications of genetic research, the marketing of thinness in post-communist societies. This is a very useful addition to the available resources and the book largely meets its overall objective. This book is targeted at medical professionals, psychiatrists, psychologists, researchers, and others involved with patients suffering from eating disorders. There are nine chapters detailing eating disorders from a global perspective with new theories to evaluate and understand them. The book takes a multidisciplinary and multinational approach where each topic is written by a local authority and followed by a commentary by two experts. Each chapter has extensive references pertinent to the local geography of the area involved. This is a very useful addition on the problem of eating disorders. This is the first book that analyzes this group of disorders from an international perspective and debates the present theories for the development of eating disorders. It is a good book for anyone interested in the epidemiology of eating disorders. Raj Tummala, MD(Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center). Copyright 2001, Doody Publishing