Family-based treatment for adolescent anorexia nervosa: A promising approach?

Abstract

Despite the fact that anorexia nervosa is a debilitating disorder with serious psychological and medical sequelae, few psychological treatments have been studied. Of these, interventions that involve the parents of the adolescent have proved to be most promising. This is especially true for those cases with a short duration of illness ( < 3 years). Even more compelling is the fact that the benefits of this family-based treatment have been shown to be enduring at 5-year follow-up. Examination of the available treatment studies, both controlled trials as well as case series, indicates that most adolescents with anorexia nervosa, even those who are severely ill, can be treated quite successfully as outpatients. The important caveat is that outcome appears to be most successful when the patient's parents are viewed as a resource rather than a hindrance. Optimism regarding these encouraging findings should be tempered until larger scale randomised trials have been conducted.