Eating Disorder - Treatment

Treatment

Treatment varies according to type and severity of eating disorder, and usually more than one treatment option is utilized. However, there is lack of good evidence about treatment and management, which means that current views about treatment are based mainly on clinical experience. Therefore, before treatment takes place, family doctors will play an important role in early treatment as patients suffering from eating disorders will be reluctant to see a psychiatrist and a lot will depend on trying to establish a good relationship with the patient and family in primary care. That said, some of the treatment methods are:

• Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which postulates that an individual's feelings and behaviors are caused by their own thoughts instead of external stimuli such as other people, situations or events; the idea is to change how a person thinks and reacts to a situation even if the situation itself does not change. See Cognitive behavioral treatment of eating disorders.
  • Acceptance and commitment therapy: a type of CBT
  • Cognitive Remediation Therapy (CRT), a set of cognitive drills or compensatory interventions designed to enhance cognitive functioning.
• Dialectical behavior therapy* Family therapy including "conjoint family therapy" (CFT), "separated family therapy" (SFT) and Maudsley Family Therapy.
• Behavioral therapy: focuses on gaining control and changing unwanted behaviors.
• Interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT)
• Music Therapy
• Recreation Therapy
• Art therapy
• Nutrition counseling and Medical nutrition therapy
• Medication: Orlistat is used in obesity treatment. Olanzapine seems to promote weight gain as well as the ability to ameliorate obsessional behaviors concerning weight gain. zinc supplements have been shown to be helpful, and cortisol is also being investigated.
• Self-help and guided self-help have been shown to be helpful in AN, BN and BED; this includes support groups and self-help groups such as Eating Disorders Anonymous and Overeaters Anonymous.
• Psychoanalysis
• Inpatient care

There are few studies on the cost-effectiveness of the various treatments. Treatment can be expensive; due to limitations in health care coverage, patients hospitalized with anorexia nervosa may be discharged while still underweight, resulting in relapse and rehospitalization.

Prognosis estimates are complicated by non-uniform criteria used by various studies, but for AN, BN, and BED, there seems to be general agreement that full recovery rates are in the 50% to 85% range, with larger proportions of patients experiencing at least partial remission.