A campus program treating eating disorders has recently begun offering a pioneering intervention program designed for families of patients suffering from anorexia nervosa, an eating disorder associated with body image.
The approach, known as Maudsley Family Therapy, was initiated by psychiatry professor and UCSD Eating Disorders Program Director Walter H. Kaye. The treatment consists of an intensive five-day, approximately 40-hour outpatient program designed to educate patients’ families about the disorder and provide them with methods to effectively manage and support their child at home.
Maudsley Family Therapy was developed approximately 20 years ago, but has only recently been offered, through a select number of institutions across the country. UCSD’s program uniquely prioritizes out-of-town families – who otherwise would not have access to the limited number of psychiatrists currently trained in Maudsley Family Therapy – and gives them the tools necessary to continue therapy with their child at home after leaving treatment.
“”The family needs to understand that they are not the cause of anorexia, but they are definitely part of the solution,”” Kaye said.
According to Anorexia Nervosa and Related Eating Disorders Inc., about one out of every 100 women develop anorexia nervosa, with 40 percent never improving or only making partial recoveries despite treatment. About 10 percent of all anorexia nervosa cases involve males, and approximately 25 percent of all untreated anorexia nervosa cases result in death.
Anorexia nervosa is characterized by reduced food intake, a relentless pursuit of weight loss and body-image distortion, and is believed to manifest in 86 percent of patients by age 20.
During UCSD’s Maudsley Family Therapy, two psychiatrists, a psychologist, a dietician and a group of therapists work with both patients and their families to help facilitate a high-structure, low-confrontation approach to fighting the eating disorder, focusing greatly on educating the family about the symptoms in people with anorexia nervosa. This understanding helps both the patients and their families develop more effective coping strategies, according to the program’s Web site.
Recently, the National Institutes of Health awarded UCSD, among other centers, a grant to study the effectiveness of Maudsley Family Therapy in comparison to other therapies for eating disorders. The funds will also be used to study the improvement that specific medications may make when used concurrently with the Maudsley approach.
Kaye hopes this research, as well as UCSD’s new model program, will help publicize and expand Maudsley Family Therapy across the country.
Kaye – who was previously employed at University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and has studied the treatment of eating disorders for more than 25 years - has also headed groundbreaking research on the relationship between the disease and genes and brain chemistry. Kaye’s research has found that genetics plays a substantial role in determining who is vulnerable to developing an eating disorder. His studies using brain imaging have also shown that alterations of brain chemistry may be the root cause of anorexia nervosa.
“”We often hear that societal pressures to be thin cause many young women and men to develop an eating disorder,”” Kaye said. “”Many individuals in our culture, for a number of reasons, are concerned with their weight and diet. Yet less than half of 1 percent of all women develop anorexia nervosa, which indicated to us that societal pressure alone isn’t enough to cause someone to develop this disease.””
Through this research, Kaye said he hopes to eventually completely cure, or even prevent, eating disorders, rather than simply reduce the symptoms.
UCSD offers a number of inpatient and outpatient treatment programs for anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa.
Patients or their families seeking more information about Maudsley Family Therapy or any other treatment plan can contact the UCSD Eating Disorders Treatment Center at http://eatingdisorders.ucsd.edu/Index.html.
