ABSTRACT
Avoidant restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID) called food neophobia, is a new eating disorder classification for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, 5th Edition (DSM-5). A designation of ARFID represents a significant departure from a more typical developmental eating trajectory and is characterized by such limited intake as to require medical intervention or supplementation., Patients presenting with ARFID report a lifetime of attenuated eating, with parents often reporting restricted intake at the earliest ages of food introduction. Thus, unlike anorexia nervosa (AN), bulimia nervosa (BN), and binge eating disorder (BED), which often appear after a history of more normative eating, ARFID typical represents an early and trenchant pattern of deviant eating patterns. This is a corollary to Family-based treatment (FBT) with young adults, whereby the length of time and previously unsuccessful efforts to address AN have led to frustration, feelings of defeat and disempowerment, and a sense that these symptoms, however damaging, have an element of willfulness about them.
