Saturday, March 6, 2010

Treating Eating Disorder Must Involve the Entire Family

Here is a great article/Maudsley summary that appeared yesterday in the Washington Post: Family Almanac: Treating daughter's eating disorder must involve the entire family.

My favorite quote from the piece:

"With help, your daughter can turn off that trigger, but she'll probably turn it off sooner if you can find a Maudsley-certified therapist who uses family-based treatment (FBT), which was developed to treat anorexic teenagers in London and is used at some of the best U.S. hospitals.

Studies show that anorexics in this intensive outpatient program can usually overcome AN in six to 12 months -- instead of several years -- and that 80 to 90 percent of them will still be fine five years from now. This is a much better outcome than patients have in other therapies, perhaps because parents are part of the treatment, as parents of sick children always should be."

No comments: