Teenagers with bulimia nervosa benefit from their parents' help in stopping their eating disorder. In fact, a therapy that involves parents works better for teens than one that does not, according to the first large head-to-head comparison in adolescents of two well-known bulimia treatments.
The findings are described in a study of 130 young people with bulimia that was published last week in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
The research, which was jointly led by Stanford's James Lock, MD, PhD, and a longtime collaborator, Daniel Le Grange, PhD, compared an approach tailored to teens with one commonly used in adults. In family-based therapy, the bulimia patient and a parent work together to stop the disordered eating behavior. In contrast, in cognitive behavioral therapy, which is widely recognized as the best approach for bulimic adults, there is more focus on changing abnormal thoughts about food and less emphasis on behavior change.
At the end of six months of treatment, 39 percent of patients in family-based therapy had abstained from the binge-and-purge cycle of bulimia for at least four weeks. Only 20 percent of those in the cognitive behavioral therapy group had done the same. The gap persisted six months after treatment ended, though it seemed to have closed by a year after the end of treatment.
Lock, who directs the Comprehensive Eating Disorders Program at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford, said the findings are not surprising, given that teens are at a different stage of the illness and have different cognitive capabilities than adults with bulimia. But they are very important, since they suggest that the family-based approach is a faster way for young patients to recover from bulimia. From our press release about the study:
“The strategy for cognitive behavioral therapy requires a fair amount of abstract reasoning, motivation and persistence that often has not reached full capacity in teens,” [Lock] said, adding that doctors may need to decide on a case-by-case basis whether a teen would benefit from one treatment versus the other. “The cognitive and developmental context is very different for teens than for adult patients,” he said.
And it’s normal for teenagers to need their parents’ assistance in navigating difficult situations, he added. “The big take-home message is that families can really help their kids with bulimia nervosa.”
Previously: Family therapy an effective way to treat anorexic teens, Incorporating the family to help teens overcome eating disorders and Families can help their teens recover from anorexia, new study shows
Photo by J.K. Califf
