Focus on Parents for Better Outcomes in Some Adolescents with Anorexia Nervosa

Although family-based treatment (FBT), a specific family therapy administered in a conjoint format, can be effective for anorexia nervosa in adolescents, so can treating parents alone via parent-focused FBT (PFT). In such cases, poor treatment response and treatment dropout have been associated with high parental expressed emotion (EE), manifested by criticizing the patient, emotional overinvolvement, or both. Researchers analyzed data from an Australian randomized, controlled trial to compare the effects of the two therapies on parental EE and on patient outcomes.

There were 102 patient-family units (patients' mean age, 15.5; mean of 15 treatments in 6 months). At baseline, high EE was seen in 44% of mothers and 26% of fathers; high materna…