There's no way around it: anorexia (and other eating disorders)
are difficult, expensive illnesses to treat. The good news is
that effective treatments are available. Recovery can be a long,
winding road (as I and other families know), but new research is
showing the most effective ways to treat anorexia. James Lock
and his group out of Stanford University published an article in
the latest issue of Eating Disorders: The Journal of Treatment
and Prevention, titled "Costs of Remission and Recovery Using
Family Therapy for Adolescent Anorexia Nervosa: A Descriptive
Report." He looked at the costs to treat adolescents with AN and
their families with a standard Family-Based Treatment approach.
The majority of the costs (72%), Lock found, were due to medical
hospitalization, before or during outpatient treatment. Another
20% were due to outpatient psychiatric treatment, a much smaller
percentage than is traditionally given. Noted Lock: "This result
may be due to the specific outpatient management strategy used
in