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The management of anorexia nervosa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

R. L. Palmer
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The severity of anorexia nervosa can vary from mild to life threatening. It is sometimes transient but often chronic. Such variety of disorder requires variety of response. The clinician must choose the right treatment to offer at the right time. The literature contains plenty of advice but most of this is based upon experience and opinion rather than on systematic research and treatment trials. For the most part, this paper will be no exception. Anorexia nervosa is a disorder which is distinct from other psychiatric syndromes but is of uncertain cause. In the face of this uncertainty, treatment tends to be informed by the favoured formulation of the clinician, usually some sort of ‘multifactorial theory’. Again this paper is no exception. It will concentrate upon the management of anorexia nervosa in late adolescence and adulthood. The treatment of children requires a different approach (Lask & Bryant-Waugh, 1993). The emphasis of the paper will be upon what can go wrong as well as what may be the best interventions to offer. Often the things that go wrong have more to do with the context of treatment and the way in which it is offered rather than with the treatment intervention itself.

Type
Research Article
Information
Advances in Psychiatric Treatment , Volume 2 , Issue 2 , March 1996 , pp. 61 - 68
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 1996 

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