The Most Effective Treatment for Adolescent Girls with Anorexia Nervosa

Recent research indicates that the most effective treatment for adolescent girls with anorexia nervosa is___________.

Answer:

Family Therapy

Explanation:

There is a long tradition of association between anorexia nervosa with interactions and family circumstances, especially with problems of separation and individuation in adolescence. Any family therapy technique, both psychodynamic, as structural or systemic, has, in some way, its origin in the conflict to overcome this chronic and, in many cases, deadly pathology, and in the understanding of its mechanisms.

Contemporary family therapy techniques prefer a focus on the repercussions of anorexia nervosa on parents and siblings. In large part, they try to train them on how to deal with eating behavior and patient aspects related to it. They try to avoid exploring the possible participation of family relationships in the origin and maintenance of the pathology, among other causes not to accuse parents of being the cause of it and generate feelings of guilt in them.

There is empirical evidence that speaks of the link between individualization-separation difficulties and eating disorders.

In family systems where the basic needs of affectivity, comfort and recognition and emotional support are not covered, these are avoided. They tend to manifest themselves in the form of more dysphoric states, which the individual has difficulty in differentiating and handling in their different forms. The intake or rejection of food can become the main mechanism for the regulation of affections. In families of "classic" anorexics, the expression of affection is usually combined with attempts to control and deny their different needs.

Systems with permeable intrafamilial links and close links between the family and the environment and high interpersonal control seem to tend to promote damage avoidance and a high dependence on reward, as Strober (1991) describes for anorexics. The protection and control of the links between the individual and others and self-esteem are displaced to food intake and thinness, both visible inside and outside the family environment, and leading to anorexia nervosa.

What is the most preferred focus in contemporary family therapy techniques for treating anorexia nervosa?

The most preferred focus in contemporary family therapy techniques for treating anorexia nervosa is on the repercussions of the disorder on parents and siblings, training them on how to deal with eating behavior and patient aspects related to it. This approach aims to avoid exploring the possible participation of family relationships in the origin and maintenance of the pathology to prevent feelings of guilt in family members.