Change in eating disorder patients in psycho-therapy; a naturalistic study.

INTRODUCTION:The aims of the present article was first to analyse the frequency of remission in eating disorder patients 1 and 21/2 years after initiating psychotherapy and second to analyse how much eating disorder patients remit and when. METHOD: 78 patients (35 anorexics, 30 bulimics, 13 with atypical eating disorders) receiving treatment as needed at the Centre of Eating Disorders, Aarhus, were interviewed at baseline and again 1 and 21/2 years after baseline. RESULTS: 42% and 50% of all patients reached normal functioning on a number of central eating disorder variables at 1 and 21/2 years follow-up, respectively. There were no significant differences in remission rate between the anorexic and bulimic groups. Differences were found however between the atypical group and the anorexic and hulimic groups. The social functioning of patients also improved significantly in the follow-up period. Eating disorder symptoms showed the biggest change between baseline and 1 year follow-up while social functioning showed the biggest change between 1 and 21/2 years of follow-up. The results support the phase model by Howard et al. (1993).