Living With Food: The Science Supporting Eating Disorder Treatment

With rare exception, eating disorders cannot be treated by medications alone. Nonetheless, part of your treatment at CCED may involve the use of medication. There are several reasons for this. First, some medications have been shown to be helpful in reducing some eating disorder behaviors. In particular, purging behavior can be significantly reduced for many people with the use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. The most studied medication for this is Prozac. Prozac has also been shown in some studies to reduce the risk of relapse in patients with anorexia. Additionally, other symptoms besides an eating disorder may also be present when the eating disorder is severe enough to require treatment. Anxiety and depression are seen in over half of patients with eating disorders. For some of these individuals, the use of medications to treat anxiety and depression is critical and may lead to a significant reduction in misery and may also lead to an improvement in eating disorder symptoms. 

Not everyone welcomes the use of psychiatric medications. There may be well founded reasons to want to avoid these medications based on personal beliefs, previous use, or physical symptoms. At the same time, many people are very pleased to discover that medications exist that can provide them with more rapid relief of depression, anxiety, and behaviors. For this group of people, options may be available. 

In order to make good decisions about medications, it is quite common for all patients receiving an assessment at CCED to be asked whether they would also like a psychiatric assessment. Psychiatry is available at CCED for any patient having any treatment here. For patients in higher levels of care, a psychiatric assessment is necessary and is provided as part of that higher level of care. 

A psychiatric assessment does not mean that you will take medication. It does mean that medication options, risks and benefits, pros and cons, and personal choice can be discussed so that the best and most effective treatment plan can be created for each individual.

If you have questions or comments about this post, please email blog@eatingdisorderscleveland.org.

Contributions by Sarah Emerman