Force Feeding Anorexic Patients: Is This Practice Doing More Harm Than Good?

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Force Feeding Anorexic Patients: Is This Practice Doing More Harm Than Good?
One of my high school best friends was diagnosed with anorexia my junior year of high school. Her condition was not severe, but still very serious because it led her to attempt to kill herself. After coming back to school from being in a mental health institution, she had gained weight from being forced to eat and was more than ever determined to lose the weight that she had gained. Clearly, being forced to eat made her condition worse. Patients with anorexia nervosa who are alarmingly thin, around 15% or so below their expected body weight, are sometimes force fed, more often than not through a tube inserted through their nose. This has raised many questions about if the practice ethical, safe, and the right thing to do. Over the course of the semester, I will explore and examine the issues with forced feeding and argue that forced feeding actually does more harm and the decision should be left up to the patient, their family or a court appointed guardian with the power to make healthcare decisions. As a social work major and someone who has seen what can happen as a result of force feeding anorexic patients, I have a strong interest in this issue because as a social work major, I have a particular interest in working with mental illness patients and this issue not only affects patients suffering from anorexia, but the medical and mental health professionals trying to help them. This topic is important because there are high stakes for the patients and they need effective treatment to recover and be healthy.
Once I discovered my friend’s situation, I read online articles about other cases and discovered that it was more common than I thought. Furtherm...

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...nent. Furthermore, I can already tell that this is not a black and white issue, as most are not, so it will be interesting to begin researching this issue and learning more about it so that I can say that I am opposed to force feeding patients with anorexia or that I am opposed to it except under certain conditions and circumstances. The question still remains, however, is forced feeding anorexic patients humane and helpful with treatment? As with my friend, I strongly believe that it was in no way beneficial to her and only hindered her progress toward recovery, so I consider this not humane and certainly not helpful with a patient’s treatment. However, I do realize there may be times when it is in the patient’s best interest to be force fed, although the decision should not be made by a doctor or a judge, but by the patient or someone who knows the patient best.

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