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- Eating disorder treatment: Know your options
- Family therapy
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Eating disorder treatment: Know your options
Treatments for eating disorders include medications, counseling and education. Find out what works.
By Mayo Clinic staffEating disorder treatment depends on the disorder and the severity of your symptoms. Getting the right eating disorder treatment for a condition such as anorexia, bulimia or binge-eating disorder is essential to prevent it from worsening or causing serious health problems. Eating disorder treatment generally involves a team of health professionals, and includes psychotherapy, nutrition education, and sometimes medication. In many cases, eating disorder treatment also involves treating other health problems linked to an eating disorder. If an eating disorder doesn't improve with standard treatment or causes medical problems, hospitalization may be necessary.
Although overcoming an eating disorder can be challenging, having an organized approach to eating disorder treatment can help you manage symptoms, regain a healthy weight, and maintain your physical and mental health.
Forming a treatment team
A treatment team may include:
- You and family members involved in your treatment
- A medical doctor who specializes in diagnosing and treating mental illness (psychiatrist)
- A dietitian to provide nutritional counseling
- A psychologist or other psychotherapist
- Your primary care doctor and other doctors involved with your care
- A social worker or social workers
It's best if everyone on the treatment team communicates on a regular basis about your progress so that adjustments can be made to your treatment as needed. Involving your partner, parents or other family members is important. For young people still living at home, a family meeting may be needed to determine who will be involved in supervising food intake and how information will be provided to the treatment team.
Managing an eating disorder can be a long-term challenge. You may need to continue to see your doctor, dietitian, mental health provider or other members of your treatment team on a regular basis even if your eating disorder and related health problems are under control.
Setting up a treatment plan
At the beginning of your treatment, you and your treatment team will come up with goals and guidelines. This will make it clear what to do if you're not able to stick with your plan or you're having health problems related to your eating disorder. A treatment plan may be particularly important if your eating disorder could impact your mental or physical health enough that you need to go to the hospital. Your treatment team will consider what your needs are and what resources are available in your area. Cost of certain treatment programs also may be a factor. Hospitalization and outpatient programs for treating eating disorders can be expensive, and insurance may not cover all of the costs of your care.
Psychotherapy for an eating disorder
Psychological counseling (psychotherapy) is generally the most important eating disorder treatment. It involves seeing a psychologist, psychiatrist or other mental health counselor on a regular basis. Psychotherapy can help you:
- Exchange unhealthy habits for healthy ones
- Monitor your treatment goals
- Develop problem-solving skills
- Learn how to cope with stressful situations
- Improve your relationships with others
- Improve your mood
Counseling may last from a few months to several years. A number of different methods of counseling are used to treat eating disorders. They include:
- Cognitive behavioral therapy. This type of counseling is a short-term, structured treatment that helps you address the thoughts, feelings and behaviors related to your eating disorder. Its goals may include helping you unlearn distorted thinking, regaining normal eating habits and stopping purging.
- Interpersonal psychotherapy. Another short-term treatment, interpersonal psychotherapy focuses on resolving relationship issues that contribute to your eating disorder. This type of treatment may be especially helpful if you have depression along with an eating disorder.
- Psychodynamic treatment. The aim of this counseling approach is to help you reduce unhealthy behavior by resolving underlying problems linked to your eating disorder. This type of treatment can take longer than other types of psychotherapy because it involves exploring your feelings and beliefs in depth.
- Family therapy. Involving family members in counseling may be especially helpful in younger people who have anorexia.
- Group psychotherapy. This type of counseling involves meeting with a mental health counselor along with who struggle with eating disorders.
Treatment may involve a combination of types of counseling. Your psychologist or counselor may ask you to do homework, such as keep a food journal to review in counseling sessions, identify triggers that cause you to binge, purge or engage in other unhealthy eating behavior, and eat scheduled meals and snacks.
Nutrition education
Dietitians and other providers on your treatment team can help you better understand your eating disorder and nutrition, and help you develop a plan to maintain healthy eating habits. Goals of nutrition education generally include:
- Education about how nutrition affects your body
- Meal planning
- Establishing regular eating patterns — generally, three meals a day with regular snacks
- Taking steps to avoid dieting
Nutrition education may involve cognitive behavioral therapy techniques to help you recognize faulty beliefs and thought patterns and understand how your eating disorder causes nutrition issues and physical problems.
Next page(1 of 2)
- Practice guideline for the treatment of patients with eating disorders. Wash. D.C.: American Psychiatric Association. http://www.psychiatryonline.com/pracGuide/pracGuideChapToc_12.aspx. Accessed July 13, 2009.
- Becker AE, et al. Management of eating disorders in the adult. In: Feldman M, et al. Gastrointestinal and Liver Disease. 8th ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Saunders Elsevier; 2006. http://www.mdconsult.com/das/book/body/149301131-3/0/1389/127.html?tocnode=51638859&fromURL=127.html#4-u1.0-B1-4160-0245-6..50022-6--cesec16_847. Accessed July 13, 2009.
- Treatment. Academy for Eating Disorders. http://www.aedweb.org/eating_disorders/treatment.cfm. Accessed July 13, 2009.
- Position of the American Dietetic Association: Nutrition intervention in the treatment of anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and other eating disorders. Journal of the American Dietetic Association. 2006;106:2073.
- Brotman AW. Eating disorders. In: Jacobson AM, et al. Psychiatric Secrets. 2nd ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Hanley and Belfus; 2001. http://www.mdconsult.com/das/book/body/149286151-3/0/1167/62.html?tocnode=49275279&fromURL=62.html#4-u1.0-B1-56053-418-4..50031-5_572. Accessed July 13, 2009.
