Running Head: EATING DISORDERS ACROSS CULTURES Eating Disorders in Women Across Cultures Proudian Interdisciplinary Honors Thesis

Eating disorders are afflicting disorders that affect the mental and physical functioning of many. A review of nearly fifty years of research confirms that anorexia nervosa, one type of eating disorder, has the highest mortality rate of any psychiatric disorder with the ratio of observed to expected deaths (the standardized mortality ratio) reaching 5.86 (Arcelus, Mitchell, Wales, & Nielsen, 2011). The ratios of other psychiatric disorders are much smaller in schizophrenia (2.5), and bipolar disorder (1.21), respectively. Since anorexia’s original inclusion in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders in 1952, rates of eating disorders diagnoses have increased from cases being found in less than 1 % of the population to close to 3 % in the population (Hudson et al., 2007; Streigel-Moore & Franko, 2003; Wade et al., 2011). Originally thought to be limited to upper class Anglo-American women, eating disorders are now being seen in other ethnicities. The prevalence of eating disorders is reaching parity among Anglo-Americans, Latin Americans, and African-Americans (Hudson et al., 2007; Wade et al., 2011). Comparing different types of eating disorders across ethnic groups, there is a