Eating Disorder Treatment Approaches
- Art Therapy. It is not uncommon for an individual with an eating disorder to have a hard time verbalizing their thoughts and feelings.
- Family Therapy. Family therapy is especially beneficial for an individual with an eating disorder. ...
- Nutrition Therapy. ...
- Medical Care. ...
- Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy. ...
- Culinary Therapy. ...
Full Answer
What types of eating disorders can be treated with FBT?
FBT can be used to treat several types of eating disorders. Although typically considered a treatment for adolescents with anorexia nervosa, the three stages found in FBT can be modified to treat individuals impacted by bulimia nervosa, avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID), binge eating disorder and other unspecified eating disorders.
What are the different types of treatment for an eating disorder?
Types of Treatment. The four problem areas include grief, interpersonal role disputes, role transitions, and interpersonal deficits. IPT helps clients improve relationships and communication and resolve interpersonal issues in the identified problem area (s), which in turn results in a reduction of eating disorder symptoms.
What is family based treatment for eating disorders?
FBT is a strength-based approach that redirects all treatment focus on figuring out what we can do to help a child recover. It’s not about who or what caused the eating disorder, but helping the child and family to move forward into healthy adolescent development. FBT views parents as invaluable resources in their child’s recovery.
What is CBT therapy for eating disorders?
COGNITIVE BEHAVIORAL THERAPY (CBT) AND ENHANCED COGNITIVE BEHAVIORAL THERAPY (CBT-E) A relatively short-term, symptom-oriented therapy focusing on the beliefs, values, and cognitive processes that maintain the eating disorder behavior.
What are three ways to treat anorexia nervosa?
Restoring a healthy weightYour primary care doctor, who can provide medical care and supervise your calorie needs and weight gain.A psychologist or other mental health professional, who can work with you to develop behavioral strategies to help you return to a healthy weight.More items...•
What are some examples of coping strategies for those with eating disorders?
CopingGet a journal where you can write your feelings throughout the day.Grow your support system. ... Start calling safe people. ... If you live with someone, plan a discussion about your needs. ... Get a list of feelings if you have difficulty identifying your experience. ... Notice meal times and content.More items...
What are some available treatments for anorexia?
Treatment for anorexia most often involves a combination of the following strategies:Psychotherapy.Medication.Nutrition counseling.Group and/or family therapy.Hospitalization.
What is the most successful type of therapy for individuals with anorexia nervosa?
CBT and IPT are the most established treatments for binge eating disorder and bulimia nervosa. FBT is the most established type of therapy for children and adolescents with anorexia nervosa, and may also be beneficial for those with bulimia nervosa.
What are your coping mechanisms?
Coping mechanisms are the strategies people often use in the face of stress and/or trauma to help manage painful or difficult emotions. Coping mechanisms can help people adjust to stressful events while helping them maintain their emotional well-being.
What can you do instead of bulimia?
Practicing AlternativesCalling a friend.Listening to music.Taking a bath or shower.Painting your nails.Lighting a scented candle.Knitting, crocheting, or doing beadwork.Painting on canvas.Listening to a guided meditation.More items...•
What is the first step in treating anorexia nervosa?
Still, what we learned from the Key's study is where to start – and the first step in the successful treatment of anorexia nervosa is to climb out of the state of starvation.
What does Osfed stand for?
OSFED stands for 'other specified feeding or eating disorder'. People with OSFED have symptoms that are similar to one or more other eating disorders, but are not exactly the same. Other eating disorders include anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder.
What is enhanced CBT?
CBT-E stands for Enhanced Cognitive Behavior Therapy. It is one of the leading evidence-based treatments for eating disorders, including anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge-eating disorder, and other similar states. CBT-E was originally developed as an outpatient treatment for adults.
Does CBT work for anorexia?
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is the leading evidence-based treatment for bulimia nervosa. A new “enhanced” version of the treatment appears to be more potent and has the added advantage of being suitable for all eating disorders, including anorexia nervosa and eating disorder not otherwise specified.
Which type of psychotherapy uses aversion therapy?
Aversion therapy is a type of behavioral therapy that involves repeat pairing an unwanted behavior with discomfort. 1 For example, a person undergoing aversion therapy to stop smoking might receive an electrical shock every time they view an image of a cigarette.
What type of therapy is interpersonal therapy?
Interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT) is a form of psychotherapy that focuses on relieving symptoms by improving interpersonal functioning. A central idea in IPT is that psychological symptoms can be understood as a response to current difficulties in everyday relationships with other people.
What is the best treatment for eating disorders?
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy. Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is often used to treat individuals with an eating disorder. A cognitive behavioral therapist teaches you how to change the way you think about your body, weight and your relationship with food, in general.
Why is family therapy important for eating disorders?
A family therapist provides you with an opportunity to safely examine any issues and concerns that you have in the presence of your family.
How to diagnose eating disorders?
During nutrition therapy, your nutrition therapist may teach you how to identify and understand the following: 1 Consuming various types of food (carbohydrates, proteins and fats) 2 The significance of consuming foods from a variety of different categories 3 The importance of eating in moderation 4 The short-term and long-term effects of eating disorders on your mind and body 5 Identifying when your body is hungry and in need of food 6 Creating a healthy and balanced diet 7 Handling social eating (parties, restaurants, etc.) 8 Easing anxieties associated with eating certain types of foods 9 Developing a health-giving exercise routine 10 Supplementing with vitamins and minerals
How does eating disorder affect family?
Eating disorders not only affect you and your well-being, they also affect your family, causing frustration and anxiety. When one member of the family has an eating disorder, it takes the attention off other family members such as siblings. In order for recovery to be successful it must include the entire faintly.
What is nutrition therapy?
Nutrition therapy is usually guided by a registered dietitian, who is experienced in treating individuals with an eating disorder. Your nutrition therapist will teach you how to see food and your weight in a new, healthier light.
What is the importance of eating in moderation?
Consuming various types of food (carbohydrates, proteins and fats) The significance of consuming foods from a variety of different categories. The importance of eating in moderation. The short-term and long-term effects of eating disorders on your mind and body. Identifying when your body is hungry and in need of food.
What is a culinary therapy assignment?
A culinary therapy homework assignment may consist of a trip to a farm, grocery store, restaurant and/or cooking classes with a healthy-living chef with the purpose of changing your perception of food.
What is eating disorder?
Eating disorders are the result of a person’s relationship with food becoming problematic, which can appear physical but is considered part of group of mental health disorders. This means that like with many other acute mental health conditions, like anxiety and depression, traditional therapy and counseling has proven effective.
Is eating disorder a mental disorder?
It’s also important to explore the fact that an eating disorder may be a mental condition caused by something physical. While this is not extremely common, there have been links found between autoimmune diseases like Type 1 diabetes, Celiac and Crohn’s disease. The common connection could be that these are all diseases in which the body — for different reasons in each case — can’t support certain dietary habits.
The UCSF Eating Disorders Program provides comprehensive outpatient services for the assessment, treatment, and follow-up of adolescents with eating disorders
Our program provides outstanding care for young people (up to age 25) with anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder, binge eating disorder, and other eating disorders.
Eating Disorders Assessment
Assessments are needed in order to make proper diagnoses and recommendations for treatment. The UCSF Eating Disorders Program has an extensive assessment process to ensure that the program is a good fit for you/your child’s treatment needs.
Cognitive Therapy for Treating Eating Disorders
Cognitive therapies are based on the foundational work of identifying the thoughts and beliefs that influence symptoms, choices, and behaviors. Research has found cognitive therapies to be some of the most effective treatment ideologies for mental illnesses including eating disorders.
Alternative and Holistic Approaches
Holistic therapy approaches are becoming more common these days for good reason.
Combined with Pharmacotherapy
Many individuals combine therapeutic treatment with pharmacotherapy and treatment centers often provide this service. Research indicates that the most effective treatment for many mental illnesses includes a combination of therapy and medication.
How to Get Help for an Eating Disorder
To learn more about how you can access one or more of the types of treatments mentioned above, the first step is to go to your therapist, primary care, or insurance company. These individuals can refer you to resources in your area that is covered under your insurance.
How does family therapy help with eating disorders?
Together, they explore how the family dynamic contributes to the eating disorder and ways to help the recovery process . Oftentimes, communication skills are emphasized, like honesty, assertiveness, independence, speaking directly, and listening. Some therapists make use of Attachment Theory, which concerns the emotional bond between two individuals—most specifically a child and parent. Regardless of their approach, most therapists have family sessions, especially when the recovering bulimic lives at home. Likewise, couples therapy is standard when the person is married or in a committed relationship.
How does family based treatment work?
Family-Based Treatment (FBT) is an approach originally developed for treating anorexics at Maudsley Hospital in London. Used primarily for adolescents living at home, FBT for bulimia relies on parents to take charge of their child’s eating. Through love, understanding, and collaboration, parents help their child control the symptoms of bulimia and resolve the issues that led to it. The goals are to: first, reestablish healthy eating; second, help the adolescent eat on his or her own; and third, to have a positive relationship that is no longer focused on resolution of the eating disorder. Usually parents work with a therapist, who follows a manual that includes forms, worksheets, and a schedule (Le Grange, 2007).
What is the psychology of eating disorders?
Psychology has many approaches to the study of human behavior, some of which have been adapted to the treatment of eating disorders. A few of these approaches have been meticulously studied and their effectiveness has been well documented; others have been less studied, but are still widely used. Most therapists and programs use a combination of techniques. Here is a brief overview of the eating disorders field’s most common therapies and others that are often used as adjuncts to treatment.
What is the DBT treatment?
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is an expanded form of CBT. It is based on developing skills for effective behaviors, and includes modules for mindfulness, avoiding self harm, emotion regulation, and distress tolerance. Originally developed to treat borderline personality disorder, it is proven to be effective for a subset of patients with bulimia. It is especially useful for those bulimics who have difficulty with emotion dysregulation, which means being so upset that they can’t think clearly or make good judgements. DBT would also be an especially suitable treatment for bulimics with other self-harming behaviors, such as substance abuse, cutting, suicidal thoughts or attempts, or trouble with anger management. DBT treatment typically involves group sessions designed for learning skills, and individual sessions to work on applying them to personal goals (Safer, 2009).
What is interpersonal therapy?
The primary aim of Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT) is to help patients identify and address current relationship issues and is particularly appropriate for individuals who are either socially isolated or in unfulfilling relationships. In studies, it has comparable long-term outcomes to CBT, though the behaviors might not stop as quickly, because the early phases of IPT are not as concerned with eating. Instead, the patient is assisted in understanding how their eating disorder is fueled by such influences as: grief (death, the loss of a relationship, etc.), role transitions (going away to school, changing jobs, divorce, etc.), disputes with family, friends, or coworkers, and interpersonal deficits. The therapy focuses on goals, questioning beliefs, making connections, improving internal and external communication, and redirecting attention from food and weight to the underlying issues (Tanofsky-Kraft, 2010).
What is FBT in eating disorders?
FBT represents a radical departure from more traditional treatments. Older theories about anorexia and eating disorders, advanced by Hilde Bruch 2 and others, ascribed their onset to family enmeshment or other dysfunction within the family.
How many meals are included in a FBT session?
FBT sessions usually involve the entire family and include at least one family meal in the therapist’s office. This gives the therapist an opportunity to observe the behaviors of different family members during a meal and to coach the parents to help their child eat.
What is family based treatment?
Family-based treatment (FBT, also sometimes referred to as the Maudsley method) is a leading treatment for adolescent eating disorders including anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and other specified feeding or eating disorder (OSFED ). It is a manualized treatment delivered by trained professionals.
How many phases of FBT are there?
Three Phases of FBT. FBT has three phases: Phase 1: Full parental control. Parents are usually in complete charge of meals as they help their child to reestablish regular patterns of eating and interrupt problematic eating disorder behaviors such as bingeing, purging, and overexercise. If weight gain is indicated, the goal is 1 to 2 pounds per week.
What is FBT in parenting?
In FBT, parents are viewed as experts on their child, an essential part of the solution, and members of the treatment team. In FBT, the eating disorder is viewed as an external force that is possessing the child. Parents are asked to join with the healthy part of the child against the eating disorder which is threatening to take their child away.
What is the principle of FBT?
Principles of FBT. FBT takes an agnostic view of the eating disorder, meaning therapists do not try to analyze why the eating disorder developed. FBT does not blame families for the disorder.
How much of an eating disorder is genetic?
Genetic studies indicate that approximately 50% to 80% of a person's risk of an eating disorder is due to genetic factors .
What is the best treatment for anorexia nervosa?
Some facts you may not know about Family-Based Treatment: 1.) FBT is currently considered the best treatment for adolescents under 19 years old diagnosed with Anorexia Nervosa. As an evidence-based approach, research has shown that approximately two-thirds of adolescents with anorexia nervosa are recovered at the end of FBT treatment ...
What is FBT used for?
FBT can be used to treat several types of eating disorders. Although typically considered a treatment for adolescents with anorexia nervosa, the three stages found in FBT can be modified to treat individuals impacted by bulimia nervosa, avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID), binge eating disorder and other unspecified eating disorders.
Where did FBT originate?
FBT has origins in the Maudsley Approach . Established in the 1980’s by a team of child and adolescent psychologists and psychiatrists at the Maudsley Hospital in London, the Maudsley Approach was developed to help reduce inpatient hospitalizations of adolescents with anorexia nervosa.
How does FBT help teens with eating disorders?
In FBT the core of the treatment is family meals: parents take charge of nourishing their teens with eating disorders by providing energy-dense meals. Parents plan, prepare, serve, and supervise all meals. If purging is an issue they provide supervision after meals. They implement strategies to prevent purging, excessive exercise, ...
How does FBT differ from traditional treatment?
FBT differs significantly from traditional treatments for adolescent eating disorders. Earlier approaches to eating disorders posited that parents were to blame for the problem—this dates back as far as 1873, when William Gull wrote that “relations and friends” were “generally the worst attendants” for patients with anorexia nervosa. During the 1960s and 1970s leading treatment models for eating disorders continued to assign blame to parents, especially mothers. Eating disorders were viewed as a struggle for independence from a dysfunctional family system. The practice of removing patients from their families and sending them to treatment facilities became the norm.
What is the FBT approach?
FBT has five core principles: Agnostic view of illness: FBT takes an agnostic view of the eating disorder, meaning we do not waste time trying to analyze why the eating disorder developed. Initial symptom focus: FBT prioritizes full nutrition and prevention of eating disorder behaviors.
What is FBT therapy?
FBT is a treatment that involves the whole family in solving their child’s eating disorder. Unlike traditional family therapy, it does not blame the family. In FBT, family sessions with a therapist are held once a week at first and then decrease in frequency. But because the parents are empowered to be a part of the treatment team, ...
How to do FBT?
FBT has three distinct phases: 1 Phase 1: Full parental control. Parents are fully in charge of meals helping their child to reestablish regular patterns of eating and interrupting eating disorder behaviors including purging and overexercise. If weight gain is needed, the goal is 1 to 2 pounds per week. Parents help their teens to start to reincorporate foods they have dropped from their repertoire. 2 Phase 2: A gradual return of control to the adolescent. This phase usually begins once most weight has been restored, when meals are going more smoothly, and when behaviors are mostly under control. The teen is gradually given more independence over their own eating in an age-appropriate manner. For instance, they may begin to have some meals or snacks independently from the parent. Families continue to focus on building flexibility in their teen’s eating. The teen begins to eat with different people and in different settings and incorporates all fear foods. In this phase there can be backsliding and parents may have to reclaim control until the adolescent is fully ready; this is part of the process. 3 Phase 3: Establishing autonomy. Once the adolescent has resumed an age-appropriate level of independence and no longer exhibits eating disorder behaviors, treatment shifts in focus to helping them develop a healthy balanced life and catch up on other developmental issues. Other co-occurring mental health problems can be addressed. Relapse prevention is incorporated.
How does FBT work?
FBT focuses on achieving recovery by treating the symptoms directly. Some parents and even some treatment providers worry that this approach is superficial and ignores the underlying issues. I can understand this. Focusing on food, regular eating, and a regulation of weight and health may seem mundane. But it works!
What is phase 1 of eating disorder?
Phase 1: Full parental control. Parents are fully in charge of meals helping their child to reestablish regular patterns of eating and interrupting eating disorder behaviors including purging and overexercise. If weight gain is needed, the goal is 1 to 2 pounds per week.
Cognitive Therapy For Treating Eating Disorders
- Cognitive therapies are based on the foundational work of identifying the thoughts and beliefs that influence symptoms, choices, and behaviors. Research has found cognitive therapies to be some of the most effective treatment ideologies for mental illnesses including eating disorders.
Alternative and Holistic Approaches
- Holistic therapy approaches are becoming more common these days for good reason. These therapies might use tactics of the above-mentioned treatments while focusing on the individual as a whole being rather than as someone that is “sick.” These therapies address the entire person, not only their physical well-being, psychological state, or interpersonal dynamics. For this reason…
Combined with Pharmacotherapy
- Many individuals combine therapeutic treatment with pharmacotherapy and treatment centers often provide this service. Research indicates that the most effective treatment for many mental illnesses includes a combination of therapy and medication. While one is unlikely to recover from an eating disorder taking medication alone, the combination of both allows the individual suppor…
How to Get Help For An Eating Disorder
- To learn more about how you can access one or more of the types of treatments mentioned above, the first step is to go to your therapist, primary care, or insurance company. These individuals can refer you to resources in your area that is covered under your insurance. Additionally, eating disorder advocacy websites often have resource lists that can help you in fin…