Family and individual therapy in anorexia nervosa. A 5-year follow-up.

BACKGROUND: There is evidence that specific psychological treatments are effective in patients with eating disorders. Our goal was to determine by means of a controlled trial whether psychological treatments, previously found to be effective in anorexia nervosa, gave rise to enduring benefits. METHODS: A 5-year follow-up was conducted on patients who had participated in a previous trial of family therapy for anorexia and bulimia nervosa. Family therapy or individual supportive therapy had been administered to 80 outpatients for 1 year beginning on discharge from hospital after weight restoration. The 80 patients had been subdivided into 4 prognostically homogeneous groups of which 2 turned out to be the most important: patients with early onset and short history of anorexia nervosa, and patients with late-onset anorexia nervosa. At the 5-year follow-up, the efficacy of the outpatient therapies was again assessed by the maintenance of weight, and the categories of general outcome and dimensions of clinical functioning defined by the Morgan-Russell scales. RESULTS: Significant improvements were found in the group of 80 patients as a whole, mainly attributable to the natural outcome of anorexia nervosa, and most evident in the early onset and short history group, as expected. Within 2 of the prognostic groups, significant benefits attributable to previous psychological treatments were still evident, favoring family therapy for patients with early onset and short history of anorexia nervosa and favoring individual supportive therapy for patients with late-onset anorexia nervosa. CONCLUSIONS: Much of the improvements found at a 5-year follow-up can be attributed to the natural outcome of the illness. Nevertheless, it was still possible to detect long-term benefits of psychological therapies completed 5 years previously.