Trends in the literature on eating disorders over 36 years (1965-2000): Terminology, interpretation and treatment

A database with more than 14 700 references to articles on ED during 1965-2000 was analysed with the aim of identifying long-term and short-term trends in the literature. The main data of the analysis are the percentages of references per 6-year period or per year for the most recent 6 years, that contain certain words or phrases. The use of words in references should reflect changes in the content of the scientific papers. Trends over time have been noted in the use of terms on diagnostics, personality, comorbidity, psychotherapy, epidemiology, biology and course of illness. The use of words on psychoanalysis has diminished, while the use of biological words has increased. The discussion concerns the use of bibliographic methods and especially the general problems of using data from digital databases as a research tool in the search for trends in the development of a medical field. Copyright (C) 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and Eating Disorders Association.