Posted by Mark Warren on Fri, Sep 11, 2009 @ 11:53 AM
The term “evidence-based treatment” refers to therapy that has demonstrated statistically significant improvements or changes in behavior. In most kinds of healthcare, the only kind of treatment a person would accept is something that is evidence based. If someone was getting treatment for cancer, diabetes, or another life threatening illness, they would seek out care that had significant evidence that it worked. Unfortunately, the history of psychiatric treatment is filled with ineffective care used because it was marketed well or because there was nothing else available. Luckily this is no longer true.
Evidence-based therapy for the treatment of eating disorders has only existed for the past 15 years. Although various types of therapy have been proven to show progress in some clients, evidence to support any given treatment is not as good as we would like it to be. It is, however, better than it used to be. The major limitations to research are the short length of many trials in what we now know are long term illnesses, and the difficulty of doing randomized controlled clinical trials. Nonetheless, given that there was no effective treatment prior to 15 years ago, what we know now is a significant improvement.
For adults, evidence-based treatments include Cognitive-behavioral therapy, Dialectical-behavioral therapy,and Interpersonal therapy. If you are 18 years or older and are currently suffering from an eating disorder, these are the therapies to try first. If you are under the age of 18 and have anorexia, the Maudsley method is the only treatment that is evidence-based and should therefore be tried prior to any other treatment. We will cover each of these treatments separately over the next few weeks.
Next week: How can I tell if my therapy is working?
Contributions by Sarah Emerman