Parents Involved in Children`s Bulimia Treatment Double Success

Dec 5
09:23

2008

Alan Rosca

Alan Rosca

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Parents involved in their children`s bulimia therapy may double the children`s percentage to overcome binge eating after six months, according to American researchers.

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The study was conducted at the University of Chicago and involved eighty teenagers,Parents Involved in Children`s Bulimia Treatment Double Success Articles aged twelve to nineteen, who suffer from bulimia nervosa. Thirty-nine people were assigned to supportive psychotherapy and forty one to family-based treatment.

The study`s results showed that forty percent of the participants who had family-based treatment managed to stop binge eating and purging, and only eighteen percent of those who had supportive psychotherapy.

Parents may play a key role in their children`s therapy, according to Dr. Daniel Le Grange, lead author of the study and Director of the Eating Disorders Program at the University of Chicago. Parents should encourage their adolescents to eat healthy and normally, and watch them during and after mealtimes to make sure they are not purging.

Parents and their follow-up role have been left out of the therapy although the family-based approach proved to be more efficient, said Dr. Le Grange. However, the researchers are still questioning whether the family involvement or the eating behavior in the family was responsible for the improved results.

Eating disorders may lead to serious health hazards and further research is needed in order to understand and treat eating disorders, said Le Grange.

(c) Project Weight Loss 2008. All rights reserved.