Treatment

Treatment for Anorexia is a team effort.  It involves doctors, specialist nurses, psychologists, and dietitians.  The two key elements of treatment are therapy and safe weight gain.  There are many different types of therapies that are based on different theories of what causes anorexia.  The Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT) is rooted in the belief that anorexia is caused by unhealthy patterns that were developed in a persons past.  This type of therapy focuses on recalling past events that may have contributed to the development of unhealthy patterns, recognizing how those unhealthy patterns contributed to developing anorexia, and finding strategies to break free from these patterns.  Another type of the ray is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.  This therapy seeks to undo the kind of cyclical thinking that says how we think about a situation determines how we act, and that how we act in turn affects how we think and feel.  CBT attempts to show how anorexia is related to unrealistic thoughts and beliefs and then encourages patients to substitute old thinking patterns for healthier thought processes.  Interpersonal Therapy is grounded in the idea that mental health is strongly related to our relationships with other people.  IPT seeks to resolve interpersonal relationships in order to deal with anorexia. Another therapy more common in teens is family interventions which seek to involve the whole family in the healing process.

Gaining weight is also necessary for treating anorexia.  It is recommended that people recovering from anorexia gain about 1 pound per week.  There can be complications associated with returning to healthier eating patters.  One of these complications is called "re-feeding syndrome." This occurs when a patient starts eating aging and the body starts secreting more insulin which causes the synthesis of glycogen, fat, and protein, which requires phosphate.  Phosphate stores, however, have been depleted during starvation.  This lack of p;phosphate leads to muscle weakness, confusion, delirium, convulsions, and cardiac failure.  One study showed that this occurred in about 27.5% of patients.

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 Anorexia nervosa - Treatment . (n.d.). Retrieved October 19, 2015.