Treatment for eating disorder

This article focuses on treating eating disorders by psychological methods. In the past twenty-five years, major progress has been realized in evaluation of these methods. For instance, a cognitive therapy has been successful in treating bulimia nervosa as well as binge eating disorder. For anorexia nervosa, family therapy has been declared the best psychological treatment. However, there are challenges associated to eating disorder treatments. They mostly depend on their adaptation and the extent of their use. It is significant to understand the depth of the problem of every patient before starting on any psychological treatment (Wilson et al, 2007).

Some of the revelations from this article are evidence of efficacy in psychological treatment. Eating disorders are highly contributed by an individual’s perception. For instance, anorexic patients tend to think they are overweight and they result to unhealthy ways of losing weight. To counter this problem, psychologists have discovered psychological means of helping such people to change their incorrect perceptions and recover. Another significant revelation is showing clinical discoveries, which improve the existing methods of psychological treatment.

The question triggered by this article is whether people are aware of the efficacy in this mode of treatment. Many people would undermine psychological treatment and think it is not successful, since it does not involve antibiotics (Wilson et al, 2007). Another question is whether this method is popular. If it is successful, mental health experts should popularize it to other health experts. This article includes discoveries of improved psychological treatment. These discoveries should be demonstrated to the rest of the medical practitioners. These two questions teach people to research on psychological methods of treating eating disorders. They suggest this mode is not popular enough to help as many people as it should.

Psychological treatment for eating disorders mainly involves therapies. For instance, family therapeutic treatment is good for anorexic patients. There is no preferred treatment, since patients vary with their problems. The best method is selected according to the patient. Different patients respond to treatment in various ways. This depends on the patient’s attitude towards the treatment. If he or she embraces it and follows the doctor’s instructions, they shall recover quickly. Those will negative attitude towards treatment tend to be slow in recovering (Wilson et al, 2007).

There is minimal research on eating disorders affecting adolescents. This area has been greatly overlooked by the medical research experts. There is little research done on anorexia, and there is no absolute treatment has been identified. Most doctors are relying on the existing methods and combining them for enhanced treatments. For instance, cognitive behavior therapy is combined with anti-depressants for quick recovery. However, people have been cautioned about using anti-depressants. There is a possibility of unwanted effects on the users.

Gender disorder treatment depends on an individual and his or her problem. Some of the factors determining the problem are the age of the patient and level of adaptation to the sex the patients want (Mallon, 2009). Treating gender disorder requires dedicated support from family and friends of the patients. This is because some patients may suffer depression or anxiety due to the experiences involved in this problem. People around patients with gender disorder are advised to use gender sensitive language to avoid disappointing victims. Transgendered people are advised to join support groups and seek professional counseling. This is because they have a bigger chance of suffering stress and depression due to their conditions (Mallon, 2009).

Reference:

Mallon, G. P. (2009). Social Work Practice with Transgender and Gender Variant Youth. Taylor & Francis.

Wilson, T. G.; Grilo, C. M.; Vitousek, K. M. (2007). Psychological treatment of eating disorders. American Psychological Association. Vol. 62 (3). P. 199-216.