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Clinicians who treat patients with anorexia nervosa debate the benefits of long-term hospitalizations versus less costly interventions. To study the effectiveness of brief inpatient stabilization followed by day treatment for anorexia nervosa patients, investigators in Germany conducted a multicenter, randomized, controlled, noninferiority trial involving 172 adolescent females who were hospitalized for the first time with the disorder (mean age, 15; body-mass index [BMI], 15; mean age-adjusted BMI percentile, 2).
After 3 weeks of inpatient stabilization, participants were randomized to hospital-based day treatment or continued inpatient care. Overall, 18% of patients had the binge-purge subtype; psychiatric comorbidities were similar in the…