Update on Occupational Therapy in Eating Disorders

The Occupational Therapy for Eating Disorders course trains professionals to work directly with hospitalized patients, assessing and intervening in cognition, functional impairments and the impact of these changes on the individual's daily life through cognitive-functional rehabilitation.

Among the different psychiatric specialties are Eating Disorders, a serious, complex disease with a high rate of disability and mortality, which is almost always associated with other clinical and psychiatric pathologies, such as anxiety, mood, impulsivity and borderline personality disorders.

They are generally characterized as eating disorders that cause harm to the person's health and functionality (activities and participation and environmental contexts – personal and family), with the most common subtypes being Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa and Binge Eating Disorders.

They become disabling diseases when they result from a long and chronic process of illness, with or without a previous history of psychiatric hospitalizations.

Currently, among Occupational Therapy studies, Cognitive Neuroscience stands out as a theoretical and practical reference in the treatment of cognitive and functional deficits present in people with neuropsychiatric disorders, and thus, as clinical approaches based on theories of Cognition and guided by the ICF (International Classification of Functioning - WHO).

At the end of the course, the student will have updated knowledge and will be able to work with patients with eating disorders, through occupational therapy, which is applied directly to the incapacity and motivation for behavioral changes, that is, interruptions or changes in performance, for taking on occupational roles and in the construction of daily life.