Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID)

Definition

Avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID) is a disorder that first appeared in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition. The diagnosis captures individuals who fail to meet appropriate nutritional and/or energy needs. The diagnosis is agnostic as to etiology: the food avoidance/restriction can be due to a general lack of interest or indifference to food, experiences of sensory aversion to food, fears of aversive consequences such as choking, etc. That said, the presumed etiology cannot be due to fear of weight gain or motivated by disturbance in the experience of the body as defined in the context of anorexia nervosa: ARFID cannot be diagnosed in the context of anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa. To be diagnosed as ARFID, the energy/nutritional deficiency must be associated with (1) clinically significant weight loss or, in the case of growing children and adolescents, failure to make adequate gains or growth faltering; (2)...