I don't profess to know what eating disorders should be called instead. But maybe an open dialogue is needed with clinicians, educators and patients about this topic and whether the term is psychologically detrimental to recovery or to reaching out to friends, family or significant others who may be suffering.

It would be interesting to ask patients how the term makes them feel. I'm thinking the majority of them will say, "It makes me feel like there is something wrong with me -- like I'm defective."

A google search on disorders pulls up an A to Z laundry list that makes your head spin -- 204,000,000 hits -- so eating disorders are not alone in their defective label. Yet, I don't know too many other illnesses that can be triggered by a term being used to describe it.

It seems counterproductive to want to help people while potentially unwittingly causing them harm. First, the acceptance of a more biological paradigm could go a long toward removing the stigma associated with eating disorders. In the 1990's, Walter Kaye, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh's Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic (WPIC) and his colleagues embarked on a landmark study -- the first ever genetic study of eating disorders.

Based on that research, the National Institutes of Mental Health is currently sponsoring a four-year multicenter, international study seeking to determine whether a gene or genes might predispose individuals to developing this illness.

The causes of this condition aren't self-imposed or culturally driven, but it may be time for the fashion industry and media to think about the triggering images and mixed messages they distribute, and for the medical community to place a kinder and gentler label on this illness.