A scanned copy of the original book first published in 2001. Probably out-of-date, but useful for researchers and practitioners interested in treatment of this diagnosis pre-digital age.

  In this book we aim to provide a useful introduction to a specialised area of psychiatric nursing care. Our intended readers are qualified nurses and students who are interested in the field, but as yet have little or no experience of it. The book contains a wide range of helpful information, ideas and advice for nurses new to the work, but we don’t claim to offer ground-breaking research or many radical new insights: neither does the book promote obscurity or mystery-making. Contributors endorse a multi-disciplinary approach, but have written from their individual perspectives; together, we have attempted rather more than a basic account of how one Eating Disorders Unit happens to do things. We certainly don’t propose (still less, dictate) any one model of practice for anorexia nervosa [AN], or one way of conceptualising it.

We want to give readers an impression of typical provision, largely from one part of the country, and we think it is not a misleading or over-drawn description. In their efforts to keep the text straightforward, our contributors might sometimes have re-stated obvious or elementary things –no offence intended! Some later chapters of the book will take the reader into slightly more advanced (specialised) ways of understanding AN; in addition, the editors’ personal interests, (sociology/ethnology of gender relations (D-DH) and ethical questions (MP)), are reflected in the choice and ‘spin’ of the topics in our own chapters.

We hope that some readers will be interested (or intrigued) enough to seek out and learn more about the specialist services in their own areas; we intend that all readers will leave this book with improved understanding of ways to help people suffering from a severe and disabling illness. A familiar disclaimer applies: that the ideas and opinions expressed herein are the authors’ own, and do not necessarily represent the beliefs, policies or practices of any employers, in the NHS or in the private health industry.