Partial hospital programmes (PHPs) have demonstrated efficacy in the treatment of eating disorders (EDs); however, few programmes have examined long-term outcomes across diagnoses, including subtypes of anorexia nervosa (AN). The present study examined the effectiveness of PHP for adult patients (n = 243) with AN-restricting subtype (n = 79), AN binge/purge subtype (n = 46), and bulimia nervosa (n = 118). These patients tended to have long-standing courses of illness (43%, illness duration >7 years) and high levels of psychiatric comorbidity (92.2%). Patients completed questionnaires at admission, discharge, and follow-up, M (SD) = 11.50 months (5.29). Through follow-up, all diagnoses demonstrated significant improvements in weight, ED psychopathology, and comorbid symptoms, with some exceptions for the AN binge/purge group. In exploratory analyses, 49% of patients met criteria for full or partial remission at discharge and 37% at follow-up. Results provide support for the effectiveness of PHP in improving ED outcomes in a severe sample through longer-term follow-up.

In summary, these findings support the need to perform controlled trials of aripiprazole in AN and BN.

These data provide further support for the notion that short-term family-based therapy may be useful for weight restoration and maintenance in some adolescents with anorexia nervosa.

Severe and enduring eating disorders (EDs) have the highest mortality rate of all psychiatric illnesses (Arch Gen Psychiatry, 2011, 68, 724), especially when comorbid with treatment‐resistant depression (TRD) (Psychiatr Res, 2016, 244, 45). We report on four patients with enduring EDs and TRD treated with repeat ketamine over 12 + months, showing improvement in depression with only modest changes in ED symptoms.

These findings raise the possibility that lamotrigine, either as monotherapy or as an augmenting agent to antidepressants, may be useful in patients who binge eat and purge, and have significant affect dysregulation with poor impulse control.