Cognitive behavioral therapy may reduce relapse risk for adults with AN after weight restoration , although its efficacy in the underweight state remains unknown .
Variants of family therapy are efficacious in adolescents , but not in adults .
Evidence for AN treatment is weak ; evidence for treatment-related harms and factors associated with efficacy of treatment are weak ; and evidence for differential outcome by sociodemographic factors is nonexistent .
OBJECTIVE The RTI International-University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Evidence -based Practice Center ( RTI-UNC EPC ) systematic ally review ed evidence on efficacy of treatment for anorexia nervosa ( AN ) , harms associated with treatments , factors associated with treatment efficacy , and differential outcome by sociodemographic characteristics .
The impact of social skills training within an established in-patient treatment programme for anorexia nervosa.
There are no controlled studies of the long term impact of treatment on the evolution of anorexia nervosa , although it is clear that life can sometimes be saved in the short term and that a variety of pharma cological and behavioural approaches can have a short term and limited effect on the low body weight control mechanisms of the patient . During the past 20 years , the second author has run an established in patient combined  behaviour and psychotherapeutic treatment programme  for patients with anorexia nervosa involving restoration of body weight to matched population levels coupled with individual and family psychotherapy ( Crisp , 1967 ) . He believes that this approach does have an impact on the course of the disorder ( Crisp , 1980 ) . However , it is difficult to evaluate it in total in a controlled experimental fashion since , in the event , it is impossible to deny any patient a treatment which almost always has the short term . effect of her gaining weight back to normal adult levels . In recent years , therefore , an alternative strategy has developed in the unit in which specific treatments ( e.g. the impact of tricyclic drugs ( Lacey and Crisp , 1980 ) are experimentally superimposed on the basic treatment programme . This paper reports the impact of a social skills programme exhibited on this basis . Two case reports ( Lang , 1965 and Argyle et a ! , 1974a ) describe the efficacy of behavioural social anxiety treatment  for anorexia nervosa . These studies are limited in diag nostic detail . Wolpe ( 1975 ) advocates the value of the comprehensiveness of a behavioural analysis in treating anorexianervosathatwould includean assessment of the symptom of social anxiety within the clinical condition . A controlled study by Argyle et a ! ( 1974b ) indicates the efficiency of  social skills treat ment as well as brief psychotherapy in positively influencing social ease in a patient population . How ever , no experimental studies are reported on the impact of a behaviourally orientated treatment for social anxiety  on the course of recovery for anorexia nervosa . This treatment was introduced because anorectics are known to be socially isolated and to have low self-esteem ( Crisp , 1970 ; Pillay and Crisp , 1977 ) . Furthermore , previous follow-up studies have revealed that those who have recovered often become socially anxious despite their involvement in psycho therapy directed at this area of difficulty ( Stonehill and Crisp , 1977 ; Crisp , 1980 ) . The hypothesis was that social skills training within the established in-patient treatment programme would lead to a greater degree of recovery from anorexia nervosa at one year follow-up as measured by the percentage matched population mean weight of the patients , and furthermore that these patients would be less socially anxious than those who had not received suchtreatment
Cognitive behavioral therapy may reduce relapse risk for adults with AN after weight restoration , although its efficacy in the underweight state remains unknown .
Variants of family therapy are efficacious in adolescents , but not in adults .
Evidence for AN treatment is weak ; evidence for treatment-related harms and factors associated with efficacy of treatment are weak ; and evidence for differential outcome by sociodemographic factors is nonexistent .
OBJECTIVE The RTI International-University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Evidence -based Practice Center ( RTI-UNC EPC ) systematic ally review ed evidence on efficacy of treatment for anorexia nervosa ( AN ) , harms associated with treatments , factors associated with treatment efficacy , and differential outcome by sociodemographic characteristics .