title: Speaking of That: Terms to Avoid or Reconsider in the Eating Disorders Field.
abstract: Inspired by an article on 50 terms that, in the interest of clarity in scientific reasoning and communication in psychology, psychiatry, and allied fields, "should be avoided or at most be used sparingly and only with explicit caveats,"(1) we propose a list of terms to avoid or think twice about before using when writing for the International Journal of Eating Disorders (IJED). Drawing upon our experience as reviewers or editors for the IJED, we generated an abridged list of such terms. For each term, we explain why it made our list and what alternatives we recommend. We hope that our list will contribute to improved clarity in scientific thinking about eating disorders, and that it will stimulate discussion of terms that may need to be reconsidered in our field's vocabulary to ensure the use of language that is respectful and sensitive to individuals who experience an eating disorder.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut.
authors.forename: Ruth S
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6121-4641
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Weissman
authors.affiliation: Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.|Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts.|Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Eating Disorders Clinical and Research Program, Boston, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Anne E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Becker
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.|Department of Nutrition, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.|Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Cynthia M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Bulik
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Colorado Denver, Colorado.|Department of Neuroscience, University of Colorado Denver, Colorado.
authors.forename: Guido K W
authors.initials: GK
authors.lastname: Frank
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan.
authors.forename: Kelly L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Klump
authors.affiliation: Douglas University Institute and Psychiatry Department, Eating Disorders Continuum, McGill University, Montreal, Canada.
authors.forename: Howard
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Steiger
authors.affiliation: Jane & Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience & Human Behavior, Stewart & Lynda Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California at Los Angeles Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Los Angeles, California.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Strober
authors.affiliation: Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts.|Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Eating Disorders Clinical and Research Program, Boston, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Glenn
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Waller
authors.affiliation: New York State Psychiatric Institute and Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University, New York, New York.
authors.forename: B Timothy
authors.initials: BT
authors.lastname: Walsh
mesh_terms: D000855:Anorexia; D002032:Bulimia; D001068:Feeding and Eating Disorders; D006801:Humans; D009626:Terminology as Topic
keywords: anorexia; anorexia nervosa; anorexic; binge eating; binge-eating disorder; bulimia nervosa; bulimic; eating disorders; subclinical eating disorder; subthreshold eating disorder