What Happens in Treatment

Effective treatment requires a team of health professionals working together. Team members should include, at minimum, a physician, a dietitian, and a therapist. Many treatments begin with psychoeducation to explain what maintains purging disorder, the consequences of the illness, and why a chosen therapy facilitates recovery. This chapter describes therapies that have been used to treat patients with purging disorder, including family-based treatment in adolescents, cognitive-behavioral therapy in adolescents and adults, and integrated cognitive affective therapy in adults. Most treatments require adaptation to effectively address purging as a primary symptom rather than as a response to binge eating. At this time, there are no randomized controlled trials focused on treatment for purging disorder. This means clinicians bear the responsibility of identifying a first line of treatment for their patients with purging disorder and evaluating the treatment’s effectiveness.