TREATMENT OF EATING DISORDERS IN CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS

Anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa are expressed differently in chil dren and adolescents than in adults. Consequently, diagnostic procedur es and multidisciplinary treatments need to be tailored to the unique developmental, medical, nutritional, and psychological needs of childr en and adolescents with eating disorders. This paper reviews current r esearch outlining the differences between child, adolescent, and adult eating disorders. Research is then reviewed concerning the effectiven ess of hospitalization, partial hospitalization, individual dynamic th erapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy, interpersonal therapy, family the rapy, and medication for treating anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, a nd related eating disorders in children and adolescents. Specific reco mmendations are made for practitioners to tailor these treatments to t heir eating-disordered child and adolescent patients, following a step ped-care, decision-tree model of intervention that takes into account the effectiveness, cost, and intrusiveness of the interventions. (C) 1 998 Elsevier Science Ltd.