Most common methods used in the treatment of eating disorders

A wide range of methods are used in the treatment of eating disorders, separately or in combination. Depending on the patient's condition, treatment can take place in a hospital, an outpatient clinic, a counseling center, or a controlled residential setting. These include medical treatment, individual and group psychotherapy, family therapy, nutritional counseling, and pharmacotherapy.

Emergency medical treatment

Though hospitalization is not common, treatment - especially for anorexia - may begin in a hospital, because sometimes the first goal is to stabilize or even save a life. Hospitalization is more common for anorexics than for bulimics and especially for anorexics who purge, since they put themselves in the greatest physical danger. Professionals make a decision to hospitalize a patient for treatment based on an individual's physical and mental condition. Factors considered include amount of weight lost - patients 15–20 percent below healthy weight - especially when combined with speed and persistence of weight loss despite therapy.

Hospitalization is also likely to be necessary in cases where serious physical problems exist, including diabetes and certain heart irregularities, or when mental illness such as depression puts a patient in danger. Lack of response to outpatient treatment programs may also result in hospitalization, as can absence of a helpful home environment.

First level of treatment: Outpatient psychotherapy

Seeing a therapist in his or her office once or twice a week, as part of individual or group treatment, and perhaps including couples or family treatment. Most people can be successfully treated at this least-intensive level of treatment.

Second level of treatment: Day treatment programs

For people who continue with symptoms in spite of outpatient treatment. Day treatment programs involve the individual going to a daylong or sometimes evening-long treatment for one or two meals, group therapy, and possibly family treatment before going home at night. This treatment level offers more ability to help control symptoms than does the first level of treatment. Many people are able to successfully change eating patterns in day treatment programs, which are cheaper and less intrusive than inpatient hospitalization.

Third level of treatment: Inpatient hospitalization.

For people for whom day treatment isn't enough. This involves being admitted to a hospital for management of eating problems. Some ED programs in psychiatric hospitals require patients to be medically stable, because a psychiatric unit often isn't equipped for complicated medical emergencies, so some may need to be admitted to a medical unit for stabilization first, then to the ED unit for treatment. These stays can last anywhere from a week to several months. Because the person is there around the clock, this allows for most control of symptomatic behaviors.

Longer-term treatment: Residential treatment

Sometimes, particularly following an inpatient stay, a person elects residential treatment. As with inpatient stays, the person lives at a facility, and continues with monitored eating, group and individual psychotherapy, and educational activities. There is usually more flexibility than a hospital, and it's more geared toward assisting the person toward independent living.

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