Question

Describe possible treatments used for eating disorders

Answer 1

Possible treatments of eating disorders:

1. Drug treatment: While drugs are not much effective in the case of anorexia nervosa, they are quite effective for bulimia. The drugs generally considered the most effective for bulimia are the same antidepressant
medications proven effective for mood disorders and anxiety disorders. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1996 approved Prozac as effective for eating disorders. Effectiveness is usually measured by reductions in the frequency of binge eating, as well as by the percentage of patients who stop binge eating and purging altogether, at least for a while.

2. Psychological treatments: Until the 1980s, psychological treatments for people with eating disorders were directed at the patient’s low self-esteem and difficulties in developing an individual identity. Disordered patterns of family interaction and communication were also targeted for treatment. These treatments alone, however, did not have the effectiveness that clinicians hoped they might. Short-term cognitive-behavioral treatments target problem eating behavior and associated attitudes about the overriding importance and significance of body weight and shape, and these strategies became the treatment of choice for bulimia. More recently this approach has been updated and improved in two major ways based on more than a decade of experience. First, a variety of new procedures intended to improve outcome have been added. Second, noting the common concern with body shape and weight at the core of all eating disorders, the treatment has become “transdiagnostic” in that it is applicable with minor variations to all eating disorders. In this treatment protocol, the essential components of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) directed at causal factors common to all eating disorders are targeted in an integrated way. (Individuals with anorexia and a very low weight—BMI of 17.5 or less—who would need inpatient treatment would be excluded until their weight was restored to an adequate level when they could then benefit from the program.) Thus, the principal focus of this protocol is on the distorted evaluation of body shape and weight, and maladaptive attempts to control weight in the form of strict dieting, possibly accompanied by binge eating, and methods to compensate for overeating such as purging, laxative misuse, etc.