Understanding

EDNOS (Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified)

EDNOS stood for "Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified" — a diagnostic category for eating disorders that were serious and real but did not fit the strict criteria for anorexia or bulimia. It was the most common eating disorder diagnosis of its era, and in 2013 it was replaced by OSFED. Crucially, "not otherwise specified" never meant "not serious."

A former diagnosis — now known as OSFED

Written by the Eating Disorder Facts editorial team Awaiting clinical review by Cindy Hawthorn, MD Updated July 20, 2026

Key takeaways

EDNOS stands for Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified, a category from the DSM-IV (the previous psychiatric diagnostic manual).
It was a catch-all for clinically serious eating disorders that did not meet the full criteria for anorexia or bulimia — and it was the most common eating disorder diagnosis at the time.
In 2013, the DSM-5 replaced EDNOS with OSFED (Other Specified Feeding or Eating Disorder) and UFED, and promoted binge eating disorder to its own diagnosis.
The biggest misconception is that "not otherwise specified" meant mild. It did not — severity, distress, and even mortality were comparable to anorexia and bulimia.
If you were diagnosed with EDNOS, your condition was never "lesser," and today it would most likely be diagnosed as OSFED or a now-named eating disorder.

The definition

What did EDNOS mean?

EDNOS — Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified — was a diagnostic category used under the DSM-IV (and, as "atypical eating disorder," in earlier editions) for people whose eating disorder was clinically significant but did not tick every box for anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa. Someone might have had all the features of anorexia except a low enough weight, or binged and purged slightly less often than the bulimia threshold required. Their suffering was real; their diagnosis simply fell into the "not otherwise specified" bucket.

In other words, EDNOS was never a distinct illness with its own symptoms. It was a residual category — a home for the many serious presentations that the narrow definitions of anorexia and bulimia left out.

A too-narrow system

Why EDNOS was the most common diagnosis

Because the criteria for anorexia and bulimia were so specific, most people with a genuine eating disorder did not fully meet them — and so were diagnosed with EDNOS. As a result, EDNOS became the single most frequently assigned eating disorder diagnosis, accounting for an estimated 30–50% of cases seen in clinics.

That statistic pointed to a real problem: the diagnostic system was labeling the majority of patients with a vague catch-all term, which could make their conditions seem ill-defined or less legitimate than they truly were.

Setting the record straight

The dangerous misconception: "not otherwise specified" is not "not serious"

The wording of EDNOS did real harm. Both patients and, at times, others took "not otherwise specified" to mean a milder or less urgent condition. The evidence says otherwise.

Research found that the duration and severity of eating disorder symptoms, the presence of co-occurring conditions, the use of mental health services, and the mortality risk in people with EDNOS were broadly comparable to those in anorexia and bulimia. One analysis put the standardized mortality ratio for EDNOS at around 2.5 — meaning roughly two and a half times the expected death rate. EDNOS was, in plain terms, a potentially life-threatening group of illnesses that happened to be labeled with a bureaucratic-sounding name.

The 2013 change

What replaced EDNOS: OSFED and UFED

When the DSM-5 was published in 2013, one of its explicit goals was to shrink the oversized EDNOS category and give people clearer diagnoses. It did this in three ways:

Binge eating disorder was recognized as its own standalone diagnosis, alongside anorexia and bulimia.
The remaining residual category was renamed OSFED (Other Specified Feeding or Eating Disorder) and given named examples — such as atypical anorexia nervosa, purging disorder, night eating syndrome, and subthreshold bulimia or binge eating disorder — so clinicians could specify what they were actually seeing.
UFED (Unspecified Feeding or Eating Disorder) was created for situations where there is a serious eating disorder but not enough information to specify further.

Some criteria were also loosened — for example, dropping the requirement for missed periods in anorexia — so that more people received a specific diagnosis rather than a catch-all one.

Mapping old to new

What the old EDNOS presentations are called now

Most presentations once labeled EDNOS now have clearer homes:

Anorexia-like restriction without a low weight → atypical anorexia nervosa (under OSFED)
Bulimia-like or binge-like patterns below the frequency or duration thresholds → subthreshold bulimia nervosa or subthreshold binge eating disorder (under OSFED)
Recurrent purging without bingeing → purging disorder (under OSFED)
Eating a large share of food at night with awareness → night eating syndrome (under OSFED)
Binge eating with loss of control → now its own diagnosis, binge eating disorder

What it means today

If you were diagnosed with EDNOS

If you or someone you love received an EDNOS diagnosis, it is important to know two things. First, it was never a sign that the eating disorder was minor — EDNOS carried the same weight and risk as any other eating disorder. Second, under today's system your diagnosis would most likely be OSFED or one of its now-named conditions, or a diagnosis such as binge eating disorder.

The label has changed, but the message about care has not: these are serious, treatable conditions that deserve full, evidence-based treatment.

Moving forward

Treatment and getting help

Whatever the diagnostic label, the treatments are the same well-established approaches used across eating disorders: psychotherapy such as CBT-E or family-based treatment, nutritional rehabilitation with a dietitian, medical monitoring, and support for any co-occurring conditions. What matters is not which name a condition carried in a given edition of the manual, but that a person gets timely, specialized help.

Read more about the current diagnosis, OSFED, explore the types of eating disorders, or find specialized help.

There is hope

A label changed. The seriousness never did.

Whatever name a diagnosis carried, specialized treatment helps. A team can guide the way.

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