TNMU 5-Year Student Organized Lecture on Prevention of Eating Disorders

Eating disorders cause approximately 9,000 deaths per year (data as of 2015). This is the reason why they belong to mental disorders with the highest mortality rate. The global prevalence of eating disorders increased from 3.4% to 7.8% between 2000 and 2018, meaning approximately 70 million people worldwide are living with an eating disorder. Anorexia, bulimia, and psychogenic overeating are the most common eating disorders.
Teenagers and young people under the age of 25 suffer from these disorders most often. Not only because at this age the issue of appearance and self-esteem is very important for young people. Eating disorders are often caused by the constant stress that medical students often experience, as well as long-term irregular eating habits. Every student is familiar with the situation when they do not have enough time to eat in the morning, and then, after returning home in the evening, they can empty half of the refrigerator.

The event was organized by Maksym Filipchak, a fifth-year student of the Faculty of Medicine. Roman Shevchuk and Tetiana Kantytska, intern doctors of the psychiatric department of the Ternopil regional clinical psychoneurological hospital, were involved in the lecture. Volodymyr Bilous, PhD, MD, Assistant Professor of the Department of Psychiatry, Narcology and Medical Psychology provided his expert advice. The event was attended not only by students of TNMU, the lecture was also beneficial for 4th-year students majoring in psychology at Ternopil National Pedagogical University.

First, the participants learned in detail about the concept of eating disorders, the most common diseases of this group of disorders, their causes, first signs and methods of treatment. Attention was also paid to new, but no less dangerous disorders that have gained “popularity” over the past few years.
At the end of the event, the students had the opportunity to ask questions to the interns, who answered them in an accessible and thorough manner. All participants were also sent to their personal e-mails the contacts of organizations to which one should contact when they suspect anorexia, bulimia or other eating disorders.
The information was provided by Maksym Filipchak.