Searching for a Better Treatments for Eating Disorders

WE NEED TO LOOK HARDER –

Dec. 17, 2021 – But in recent years, scientists have made inroads. They know more about which psychological treatments work best, and are hoping to devise new types of therapies by exploring how genetic or neurological causes might underlie some of the disorders. Meanwhile, an unexpected silver lining to the Covid-19 pandemic was that pivoting to delivering treatments remotely through video calls was largely successful, reports find. This raises the hope that effective telehealth might broaden therapy access to more people, especially those in rural areas.The three most common eating disorders are anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge-eating disorder. Anorexia is characterized by severely restricted eating and/or over-exercising. It also has the highest mortality rate — up to 20 percent if left untreated — of any psychiatric illness.

Bulimia shows a pattern of binge eating followed by compensating behaviors, such as vomiting or using laxatives. And binge-eating disorder is defined as recurrent episodes of overeating without compensating behaviors. These three disorders share similar psychological patterns — such as a preoccupation with weight and shape — that lead to a loss of control around eating. Although they have different behaviors and physical symptoms, they are treated in therapy in similar ways.