Eating Disorders

Treatment

Eating disorder care at Mayo Clinic is guided by a team whose goal is to create a coordinated treatment plan, both inpatient and outpatient, for each patient. This team includes psychologists, psychiatrists, nurses, dietitians and other medical professionals, as necessary. Mayo's integrated approach differs from programs in which a patient may be cared for by several medical specialists offering different treatments.

Treatment at Mayo includes a combination of psychotherapy, nutrition counseling, medical care, and medications when necessary. Mayo aggressively pursues refeeding and symptom management in the inpatient program, resulting in quick weight gains and improved health.

At Mayo Clinic, family-based therapy is an option for all patients who have supportive family members. The program focuses on:

• Involving parents or close family members as integral members of the treatment team
• Teaching and supporting parents in refeeding their child and developing a plan to respond to their child's success or failure to meet requirements after discharge
• Promoting healthy family relationships
• Teaching patients and families healthy eating behaviors
• Helping establish the patient's true identity and involvement in age-appropriate activities

Family-based therapy recognizes that patients who have an eating disorder are often in denial about their condition and are not making good choices regarding their health. The family's assistance is needed to help restore the patient's health.

"Children who have eating disorders are typically from loving families. They are very responsible, accomplished, and well-behaved. That's what makes their eating disorders so baffling to the people who love them," says Leslie Sim, Ph.D., clinical director of Mayo's Child and Adolescent Eating Disorders Program. "We don't know what causes eating disorders, but we do know that parents play a huge role in helping their children recover."