Family Therapy for Bulimia Patients Advised, Study Says

Dr. Daniel le Grange, an Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Director of the Eating Disorders Program at the University of Chicago, has released the results of his latest research. The report shows that when parents become involved in the treatment of children suffering with adolescent bulimia nervosa, the number of teens who successfully abstain from binge eating and purging after six months almost doubled.

The results were that close to 40% of those who take part in family-based type of treatment had been able to stop as compared to 18% who received the standard psychotherapy therapy. Not only that, at the six-month point close to 30% of those in the family therapy group were still abstaining. In the group that got the traditional therapy, the figure was only 10%

In the trial, which took place at the University of Chicago, there were 80 participants, all of whom were between the ages of 12 and 19. They all had been diagnosed with bulimia nervosa or with a very strict definition of partial bulimia nervosa. They divided the patients into two groups. Forty one were put into the family-based treatment program and thirty nine received the traditional treatment. All of the patients each made 20 visits to the clinic over the six-month trial period.

The family-based treatment involved not only the parents, but even siblings. Parents played an important part in the follow up part of the treatment at home by encouraging the patients to eat as normally as they could and also by monitoring them during the meal and afterwards to make sure that not only do they eat, but also do not purge.