2005 Volume 45 Issue 5 Pages 341-349
Eating disorder patients are treated mainly in the outpatient clinic of our department. Our outpatient treatment consists of motivational enhancement and cognitive behavioral therapy. Patients are transferred to internal medical or psychiatric hospitals for short-term inpatient treatment if the physical or psychiatric condition is critical and requires emergent interventions. The patient is admitted to our open unit, if she is well motivated although progress is insufficient. Inpatient treatment consists of loose behavioral therapy rather than strict behavior restriction. Contract of behavioral treatment is confirmed on the first day of admission. Details of treatment are decided through a team conference. And patients are transferred to the outpatient clinic as soon as possible to treat them in the context of their ordinary life. Outcomes of anorexia nervosa showed similar results between patients who received inpatient and only outpatient therapy in our medium-term follow-up study. Inpatient treatment seemed to have limited indication, although this result can not be simplified to indicate that inpatient treatment is useless.
