Dear Doctor: Your patient has an eating disorder.

Eating disorders are mostly invisible. They are also great deceivers: able to mimic all manner of common chronic conditions and ailments. Some patients may have been told they were cured in their teens, but many more will have never been treated for an eating disorder at any time in their lives. So it won't occur to your patient that the cause of their symptoms is an eating disorder. Given the prevalence of eating disorders, here's a primer on how to identify them as a physician.

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