Doctors and scientists are still powerless in the face of anorexia

Humanity still has no effective means of treatment of anorexia. The largest in the history of the study about this eating disorders has shown that the efficacy of his treatment over the last 40 years hasn’t increased.

Anorexia is not only an eating disorder, but a psychiatric illness predominantly affecting young people. Though she faces no more than 1% of the population, the disease can not be called rare. In addition, anorexia is often fatal, because at some point no amount of medical intervention do not help, and the body gradually shuts off due to chronic malnutrition. Sometimes victims of anorexia are becoming adolescents aged 11-12 years, and in some cases the disease waves continues for decades. It can lead to a variety of psychiatric and physiological disorders that increase the risk of mortality.

All this makes the treatment of anorexia is very important. A meta-analysis of 37 randomized controlled trials conducted from 1980 to 2017, has allowed scientists to assess which treatment of anorexia emerged in the last 40 years. The researchers also determined the effectiveness of a variety of techniques, including cognitive behavioral therapy. Unfortunately, the results were bleak. It became clear that humanity still does not know how to effectively treat anorexia, and any advanced techniques that could rely, and has not appeared.

In addition, cognitive behavioral therapy, family therapy and various medications on the effectiveness did not exceed more standard treatment like the usual meetings with the psychiatrist. Really, the only advantage of cognitive behavioral therapy is just a strong likelihood that the patient will increase weight by the end of treatment. Unfortunately, even if the treatment helps restore normal weight, it in no way guarantees that the patient will not face a relapse, and again will not turn into a living skeleton. (READ MORE)