May 2012 Archive
Can you recover from an eating disorder?
05.23.12
Dr. David Herzog and his colleagues at Massachusetts General Hospital have been investigating this question for over 20 years. Through a longitudinal study of patients with anorexia, they have discovered that yes, in fact, many patients recover. Here is a summary of their key findings:
* Patients recover, but it is usually a tough process.
* Recovery requires professional help (usually work a treatment team such as a therapist, medical doctor, and nutritionist)
* relationships, pets, jobs, motherhood also facilitate recovery
Read the full article here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-david-herzog/eating-disorders_b_1473968.html
Reflections from ICED 2012
05.14.12
Happy Spring! I just returned from the International Conference on Eating Disorders in eclectic Austin, TX. It was a great program this year and left me rejuvenated with many new thoughts and ideas. This year many of the topics again focused on the ever present gap between research and practice. Presenters were examining the many factors that make it difficult for research findings to easily make their way into the therapeutic environment (outpatient, inpatient and residential). The questions of why clinicians do not always implement what the research tells us was explored in many ways.
As clinicians treating eating disorders, it is essential we use the best treatment available to help our patients recover from these difficult illnesses. It can be difficult at times to translate research done in a lab into the therapy room, but we must find ways to do it. For as much as we have learned about eating disorders over the past 25 years, there is a lot that we still do not understand. It is essential that we listen to the work being done on all frontiers of the field, this is the only way to provide the highest level of care and provide the best outcomes for patients and families.
Stay tuned this week as I provide more information and thoughts from ICED 2012. Check out more updates on the AED Facebook page and twitter #iced2012.