Eating disorders often begin in the teenage years, but, surprisingly, the medical community long lacked a teen-specific set of guidelines for treating these serious illnesses.
That changed in May with the publication of a set of practice parameters co-authored by Stanford eating disorder expert James Lock, MD, PhD, who also directs the Comprehensive Eating Disorders Program at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford. The parameters were based on an extensive review of the current scientific evidence around eating-disorder treatment, including recent studies by Lock and his colleagues that show that teens’ parents can play an active role in helping their children recover from anorexia nervosa. That’s a big shift from traditional thinking about eating disorders, which held that young patients’ families should be shut out of treatment.
In a new Q&A, I talked with Lock about why the parameters were needed. He told me:
There have never been practice parameters that address eating disorders in children and adolescents, and expertise in treating these disorders has been sort of sequestered. Yet eating disorders are so prevalent and are such a severe problem: Lifetime prevalence in adolescent girls is around 1 percent, and the disorders have among the highest fatality rates of all mental illnesses.
Teens need treatment approaches that account for their level of physical and emotional development, the fact that their parents generally want and need to be involved in their recovery, and the fact that they have not usually had eating disorders for as long as adult patients with the same diagnoses.
Lock also discusses how he hopes the new guidelines will improve training of psychiatrists, how recent changes to eating disorder diagnostic criteria are making it easier for doctors to get their patients the help they need, and why outpatient treatment is the new front line for young people with eating disorders.
Previously: Patient tells how social media helped her overcome the "shame" of her eating disorder, Incorporating family into helping teens overcome eating disorders and Story highlights need to change the way we view and diagnose eating disorders in men
Photo by Darren Tunnicliff
