Bulimia Nervosa: Adolescent's Eating Disorder Recovery Dependent On Parent's Help

Parents may be critical in their child's recovery from bulimia. New findings published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. reveal that family based therapy was clinically superior to cognitive based or individual therapy with 49 percent of teens receiving family based therapy abstaining from binging and purging versus 32 percent for cognitive based therapy.

Bulimia nervosa, typically just referred to as bulimia, can be a potentially life-threatening eating disorder in which individuals binge on extensive amounts of food and then purge in the hopes of getting rid of what they have just consumed. Those with the condition may force vomiting or engage in excessive amounts of exercise. On the other hand, some may try and purge even a small snack, according to the Mayo Clinic. And this typically occurs after frequent recurrent episodes of uncontrolled eating, referred to as binge episodes. One in three children in the United States is estimated to be affected by the health issue.

"Parents need to be actively involved in the treatment of kids and teens with eating disorders," researcher Daniel Le Grange of the University of California-San Francisco said in a statement. "This study shows definitively that parental engagement is imperative for a successful outcome of adolescents with bulimia nervosa. It goes counter to the training that physicians receive in psychiatry, which teaches that parents are to blame for bulimia, and therefore should be omitted from treatment."

During the study, researchers compared two treatments, including cognitive behavioral therapy and family based therapy. While the former focuses on an individual patient, honing in on skills for training that help patients gain thorough understanding of themselves and irrational thoughts that may cause them to binge and purge, family based therapy works in helping parents to understand the severity of the disorder and learn how to best support children on a daily basis with healthy habits, keeping them medically safe. 

Participant groups involved 130 randomized adolescents ranging from 12 to 18 with bulimia who either received cognitive behavioral therapy or family based therapy. Treatments included 18 outpatient sessions for over six months and six to 12 months of follow-up. 

Findings revealed that participants in family based therapy achieved higher abstinence rates from binging and purging than the patients in individual cognitive based therapy. At the end of initial treatment, 39 percent of family based therapy patients were abstaining from binging and purging versus 20 percent of cognitive based therapy patients, and at the six-month follow-up 44 percent of family based patients were not binging and purging versus 25 percent of patients who received cognitive based therapy.

"These findings are quite clear," Le Grange concluded. "Family based therapy is the treatment of choice for adolescents with bulimia nervosa, because it works quicker and faster and maintains its impact over time. "

Related Articles

Bulimia Increases Risk of Abortion, Miscarriage

For more great science stories and general news, please visit our sister site, Headlines and Global News (HNGN).