General practitioners
(GPs) and other primary health care providers are best
placed to be the health practitioners first involved in
conducting preliminary assessments, providing initial
triage, and thereafter sharing case management with
other clinicians [7]. This is partly because people with
eating disorders attend GPs and other medical speciality
services more frequently than their peer group, albeit
often for conditions seemingly unrelated to the disorder.
The presence of an ED also increases the rate of presentations
to Emergency Departments [4]. In terms of accuracy
of diagnosis, AN is the ED most often accurately
diagnosed by primary care physicians [8]. Atypical cases,
or those who do not present with all diagnostic criteria,
can be misdiagnosed [9] or considered ‘less serious’
despite clearly having a clinically significant disorder that
squarely sits within the AN spectrum.