Summary

Brief Video Highlight



The Dr. Lawrence H. and Roberta Cohn Forums

EATING DISORDERS, MENTAL HEALTH AND BODY IMAGE: The Public Health Connections

Presented in Collaboration with PRI’s The World and WGBH

More than 30 million Americans — women and men, children and adults — grapple with eating disorders. These complex illnesses, which include anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating disorder, severely undermine health and cost lives. This event explored the many dimensions to eating disorders, including their biological bases, risk factors and treatment options. What role does body image play, and how do industries, such as fashion and advertising, often promulgate unrealistic societal standards of beauty? How might women and girls, in particular, be affected by such pressure? And what’s to be done? For example, would enacting legislation that requires minimum BMIs for models, or requiring disclosures of digitally altered ads, help? This panel included expertise in psychiatry, children’s health, policy and eating disorders prevention.

Part of: The Dr. Lawrence H. and Roberta Cohn Forums.

Presented in Collaboration with PRI’s The World & WGBH

Image Credit: iStockphoto.com | webphotographeer