Anorexia Family Therapy

Family-based treatment may benefit teens with anorexia.
The Wall Street Journal (10/5, Wang) reports that, according to a study published Oct. 4 in the Archives of General Psychiatry, the families of adolescent patients with anorexia nervosa are now being included more and more often in the treatment of the disorder. The study found that having parents supervise each meal to make sure their child eats may be more efficacious than traditional one-on-one treatment with a therapist.
The Chicago Tribune (10/4, Deardorff) "Julie's Health Blog" reported, "Family-based therapy, often called the Maudsley Approach, should be the gold standard or first-line outpatient treatment for medically stable teens, said study co-author Daniel Le Grange, director of the Eating Disorders Clinic at the University of Chicago Medical Center." For the study, "120 patients with anorexia were randomly assigned to one of the two treatments."
HealthDay (10/4, Gardner) reported, "At six months, 40 percent of those in family-based treatment were in full remission versus 18 percent of those in individual therapy. At one year, the numbers were 49 percent and 23 percent, respectively." HealthDay pointed out that "the family therapy explored in this study focused on parents actively helping kids learn to eat and gain weight, then turning more autonomy over to the patients as their functioning improves."