Family-based therapy can help teenagers with anorexia

By Staff Writer

A new study reveals that therapy involving family members can help teenagers recover from anorexia, an eating disorder that usually stems from low self-esteem and psychological problems.

According to WebMD Health News, researchers studied the difference between family-based therapy and individual therapy for those suffering from anorexia. After one year, approximately 49 percent of the patients who received treatment with family members involved were in remission, compared to 23 percent in the individual therapy group.

According to the news source, the family sessions worked on building healthy relationships between parents and their children and emphasized the role parents can play in helping their kids recover. During individual treatment, therapists asked troubled teens to identify their anxieties and taught them new ways of coping other than starving themselves.

Researchers believe that family therapy more directly addressed the damaging repercussions of the disease.

According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), women are more likely than males to develop an eating disorder. The NIMH also reports that the mortality rate among people with anorexia is 5.6 percent per decade, which is about 12 times higher than the annual death rate due to all causes of death among females ages 15-24 in the general population.