Eating Disorders Treatment Principles
- Early intervention can help minimize the potentially life long complications of this disorder, and can reduce the severity of this life long battle
- Without treatment—and most patients are not being treated– one-fifth of patients will die prematurely.
- Even with treatment, after 8 to 25 years, the premature mortality rates are 4% for AN patients, 3.9% for bulimia nervosa (BN) patients and 5.2% for those with eating disorders not otherwise specified, or EDNOS.
- Anorexia nervosa has the highest premature fatality rate of any mental illness (Sullivan, 1995).
EATING DISORDERS TREATMENT PRINCIPLES:
Adequate nutrition, reducing excessive exercise, and stopping purging behaviors are the foundations of initial treatment.
Recovery of normal weight and nutritional status can assist in the distorted perceptions and thinking.
Specific forms of psychotherapy and medication are effective for many eating disorders.
For more chronic cases, specific treatments have not yet been identified. Treatment plans often are tailored to individual needs and may include one or more of the following:
- Individual, group, and/or family psychotherapy
- Medical care and monitoring
- Nutritional counseling
- Medications.
Some patients may also need to be hospitalized to treat problems caused by malnutrition or to ensure they eat enough if they are very underweight.