CPG for Eating Disorders

PresentationHealth care practice is becoming more and more complex due to multiple factors,the most relevant being the exponential increase of scientific information.To ensure that clinical decisions are appropriate, efficient and safe, health careprofessionals must constantly update their knowledge, an objective that entails greatdedication and effort.In the year 2003, the National Health System’s Interterritorial Council created theHealth Guide (GuíaSalud) project, which aims ultimately to improve evidence-basedclinical decision-making by means of training activities and the configuration of aClinical Practice Guidelines (CPG) register in the NHS. Since then, the Health Guideproject has assessed dozens of CPGs in accordance with explicit criteria generated by itsscientific committee, registered these CPGs and disseminated them throughout theInternet. In early 2006, the Directorate General of the National Health System QualityAgency elaborated the Quality Plan for the National Health System, a plan thatencompasses twelve strategies. The objective of this Plan is to increase cohesion of theNHS and aid in guaranteeing maximum quality health care to all citizens, regardless oftheir place of residence. As part of the plan, the development of eight CPGs onprevalent pathologies related with health strategies was assigned to different agenciesand experts groups. This guide on eating disorders is the result of this assignment.Additionally, the establishment of a common CPG development methodology forthe NHS was assigned to CPG experts groups in our country, resulting in a collectiveeffort of consensus and coordination amongst them.In 2007, the Health Guide project was renovated by creating the Clinical PracticeGuideline Library. This project thoroughly covers the elaboration of CPGs and includesother services and products of evidence-based medicine. It also aims to favour theimplementation and assessment of the use of CPGs in the National Health System.Eating disorders, anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa, as well as other similarclinical pictures, are disorders of multifactorial ethiopathogeny that have been a greatchallenge for public health care in the last decades. Sociocultural factors that can lead toeating disorders, as well as the serious physical, social and psychological sequelae thatthese disorders entail have caused great social alarm. Eating disorders are diseases thatnot only involve the affected individual, but also the family and closest environment,and even health care and education professionals who are directly or indirectly involved,and who have no access to guides to address these disorders successfully.CLINICAL PRACTICE GUIDELINE FOR EATING DISORDERS7