TY - JOUR
T1 - Intensive multi-family therapy for adolescent anorexia nervosa
T2 - An open study of 30 families
AU - Salaminiou, Eva
AU - Campbell, Mari
AU - Simic, Mima
AU - Kuipers, Elizabeth
AU - Eisler, Ivan
PY - 2015/7/3
Y1 - 2015/7/3
N2 - The article reports on an innovative treatment for adolescent anorexia nervosa (AN) - intensive multi-family therapy - in terms of symptoms, patients' and parental psychological functioning and treatment acceptability. In all, thirty patients and their families took part in the study and were assessed at baseline, 3 and 6 months. At 6 months two-thirds had gained sufficient weight to be in the normal weight range with significant improvements in AN cognition, mood and self-esteem. Only two of the thirty families discontinued treatment early and both patients and parents scored high on treatment satisfaction, though parents scored significantly higher than patients. These results compare favourably with outcome data from larger more rigorous evaluations of single family therapy for adolescent AN currently considered to be the treatment of choice. While larger, randomized studies are needed, the results are promising and suggest that multi-family therapy may be a useful additional treatment approach for this group of young people.
AB - The article reports on an innovative treatment for adolescent anorexia nervosa (AN) - intensive multi-family therapy - in terms of symptoms, patients' and parental psychological functioning and treatment acceptability. In all, thirty patients and their families took part in the study and were assessed at baseline, 3 and 6 months. At 6 months two-thirds had gained sufficient weight to be in the normal weight range with significant improvements in AN cognition, mood and self-esteem. Only two of the thirty families discontinued treatment early and both patients and parents scored high on treatment satisfaction, though parents scored significantly higher than patients. These results compare favourably with outcome data from larger more rigorous evaluations of single family therapy for adolescent AN currently considered to be the treatment of choice. While larger, randomized studies are needed, the results are promising and suggest that multi-family therapy may be a useful additional treatment approach for this group of young people.
KW - Adolescent anorexia nervosa
KW - Eating disorders
KW - Multi-family therapy
KW - Outcome research
KW - Treatment evaluation
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84936863763&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/1467-6427.12075
DO - 10.1111/1467-6427.12075
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84936863763
SN - 0163-4445
JO - Journal of Family Therapy
JF - Journal of Family Therapy
ER -