The patient diagnosed with an eating disorder can be seen as a target for guidance or can be positioned, together with the professional, as a specialist in the performance of the treatment. We sought to understand, from the discursive practices of people diagnosed with these disorders, how professionals and patients construct decisions about treatment. Interviews were conducted with 12 patients in a specialized service and four of these were selected for analysis, based on the social constructionist discourse. The analysis allowed us to investigate the denunciative movements of the participants regarding the unilateral decisions taken by the healthcare professionals, and their demand for greater patient participation in treatment decisions. These relational realities were discussed considering the social discourses privileged in the discursive practices undertaken in the physician-patient relationship, the structuring of public health policies in our country, and the functioning of hospitals.
Anorexia nervosa; Bulimia nervosa; Social constructionism; Health personnel; Physician-patient relations