Speaking of that: Terms to avoid or reconsider in the eating disorders field |
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| Authors: | Ruth S. Weissman PhD Anne E. Becker MD PhD MPH Cynthia M. Bulik PhD Guido K.W. Frank MD Kelly L. Klump PhD Howard Steiger PhD Michael Strober PhD Jennifer Thomas PhD Glenn Waller D.Phil B. Timothy Walsh MD |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Department of Psychology, Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut;2. Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts;3. Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts;4. Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Eating Disorders Clinical and Research Program, Boston, Massachusetts;5. Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina;6. Department of Nutrition, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina;7. Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden;8. Department of Psychiatry, University of Colorado Denver, Colorado;9. Department of Neuroscience, University of Colorado Denver, Colorado;10. Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan;11. Douglas University Institute and Psychiatry Department, Eating Disorders Continuum, McGill University, Montreal, Canada;12. Jane & Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience & Human Behavior, Stewart & Lynda Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California at Los Angeles Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Los Angeles, California;13. Department of Psychology, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, United Kingdom;14. New York State Psychiatric Institute and Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University, New York, New York |
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| Abstract: | Inspired by an article on 50 terms that, in the interest of clarity in scientific reasoning and communication in psychology, psychiatry, and allied fields, “should be avoided or at most be used sparingly and only with explicit caveats,”1 we propose a list of terms to avoid or think twice about before using when writing for the International Journal of Eating Disorders (IJED). Drawing upon our experience as reviewers or editors for the IJED, we generated an abridged list of such terms. For each term, we explain why it made our list and what alternatives we recommend. We hope that our list will contribute to improved clarity in scientific thinking about eating disorders, and that it will stimulate discussion of terms that may need to be reconsidered in our field's vocabulary to ensure the use of language that is respectful and sensitive to individuals who experience an eating disorder. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.(Int J Eat Disord 2016; 49:349–353) |
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| Keywords: | eating disorders anorexia nervosa bulimia nervosa binge‐eating disorder binge eating subthreshold eating disorder subclinical eating disorder anorexic bulimic anorexia |
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