While more involved, data on benefits can also be obtained through evaluative methods such as treatment outcome studies, citation analyses, and surveys. These disorders notably bulimia and anorexia have reached near epidemic proportions, and many animal models have been developed to study them. These disorders notably bulimia and anorexia have reached near epidemic proportions, and many animal models have been developed to study them. ED remains relatively intransigent to intervention. To the degree that it is successful, the particular forms of treatment do not derive from animal models of those disorders.
Citation analysis is a method of assessing the influence of published studies on the field.
A citation analysis of major animal models of ED shows that these studies, relative to the average level of citation of all scientific studies. are infrequently cited in the scientific literature. A survey of clinicians specializing in the treatment of ED found that clinicians do not read the journals in which these studies are cited. In addition to these empirical evaluations, certain features of the ED animal models were striking. Typically, the similarity between the model and the actual disorder is coarse, being based on only one or two similarities. There is a preoccupation with developing technology and instrumentation.