Family therapy for anorexia nervosa

Experienced Carers Helping Others (ECHO): Protocol for a Pilot Randomised Controlled Trial to Examine a Psycho‐educational Intervention for Adolescents with Anorexia Nervosa and Their Carers

“…Family therapy is one way of involving families in treatment. To date, it is the most effective form of intervention in the early phase of the illness (less than 3 years duration), according to the results of a Cochrane (Fisher, Hetrick, & Rushford, 2010b), and later, systematic review (Couturier, Kimber, & Szatmari, 2013). However, this type of involvement is less effective in those with a longer duration of illness (Fisher, Hetrick, & Rushford, 2010a).…”

The neurobiology of eating disorders—a clinical perspective

“…Early intervention appears to be the most effective treatment for those with EDs, and there is some evidence that family therapy has the most robust success rate when treating children and adolescents . One difficulty, however, with treating patients with EDs is that a long period of time has often elapsed before the patient comes to treatment and so the neural complications are likely to be embedded.…”

Favorable effects of clearly defined interventions by parents at the start of treatment of adolescents with restrictive eating disorders

“…Considering the seriousness of the disease relatively little research on intervention has been done and the evidence base for treatments is insufficient. 1 There is an increasing, although still limited, evidence base for family-based treatment (FBT), [2][3][4] and family interventions are suggested as first-line treatment. [5][6][7] The form of FBT initially known as the Maudsley model has been developed, manualized and systematically studied by Lock et al 8 In this outpatient treatment the family holds the key position in helping their adolescent to overcome the ED.…”

“…We have therefore presently evaluated how four distinct interventions, proposed at the first consultation for an ED, affects weight gain and eating disturbed ideation during the first three months of treatment. The proposed interventions were (1) staying home from school, (2) having all meals with a parent, (3) not being allowed to exercise, and (4) being prevented from vomiting. It was hypothesised that parents who successfully performed these four interventions would experience a better short-term outcome for their adolescents in terms of weight gain and eating disturbed ideation.…”