Since anorexia nervosa has been so widespread recently, a number of eating disorder clinics have been established.  The clinics are usually a part of a general hospital.  The purposes of these facilities are to control eating, and monitor food intake.  However, this can become very expensive (near $1000 a day)!  Most individuals either do not require such a service, or the cannot afford it.  Therefore, many patients with anorexia are treated on an outpatient basis.

Psychodynamic Approaches
    This approach involves an attempt to treat the individual's depression, and improve their self-evaluation, since these factors are the supposed causes of anorexia.  In some of cases of anorexia, the patients with treatment did not improve more than the patients not in treatment.  Therefore, the improvements were thought to be due to the progression of the disease or strong outside support.  Although the evidence is limited, reduction of stress can aid in treatment of anorexia nervosa.

Learning Approaches
    This approach involves providing individuals with anorexia with appropriate rewards, such as visitors or tokens for proper eating and weight gain.  However, there is not much controlled research for this particular approach, therefore the findings are limited.

Cognitive Approaches
    There is sufficient evidence that cognitive therapy can effectively treat eating disorders.  In such treatment sessions, women are taught how to identify patterns of eating, thinking and mood that triggered their inappropriate eating episodes.  Then in place of these they are taught appropriate patterns, that lead to healthy eating.  At least two-thirds of the individuals who benefit from this type of treatment have maintained their improvements for 6 months!

Physiological Approaches
    The physiological approach is based on the fact that serotonin levels are low in the hypothalamus.  Therefore, treatment is designed to increase these levels with antidepressant drugs.  These drugs are apparently effective in treating eating disorders, such as anorexia nervosa.  However, no drug is effective for all patients suffering for anorexia.  Although the reasoning is not clear, antidepressant medication is more effective for treating bulimia nervosa than anorexia nervosa.  Data suggest that eating is returned to normal much slower than stopping bingeing and purging.  After an extended period of starvation, the digestive system cannot handle a sudden intake of food, because the stomach has actually shrunken.  Therefore, of all the available treatments for anorexia nervosa, cognitive therapy and antidepressant medication have proven to be the most effective.  Perhaps, outlook is improving for this serious disorder!  With further research on the biological and social control of feeding and metabolism, we will understand this devastating disorder in greater detail!

For more information about the treatment of eating disorders, please visit this site:
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