Bulimia Nervosa affects at least 1-2% of adolescents and young adults, 80% of them women, according to the Daily Times Gazette.
Researchers from Univesrity of California in San Francisco studied the effects of parents' support to bulimic patients, reportedly finding that patients recover faster if treatment involves the presence of parents.
"Parents need to be actively involved in the treatment of kids and teens with eating disorders," researcher Daniel Le Grange of the University of California-San Francisco said.
"This study shows definitively that parental engagement is imperative for a successful outcome of adolescents with bulimia nervosa. It goes counter to the training that physicians receive in psychiatry, which teaches that parents are to blame for bulimia, and therefore should be omitted from treatment."
For the recent study, scientists reportedly compared the results of two types of treatment, including cognitive behavioral therapy and family based therapy, according to NewsEveryDay. Although cognitive behavioral therapy reportedly focused on an individual patient, family based therapy was found to be beneficial as it helped parents become more aware of their child's illness, thus helping the recovery process.
Those who received family based therapy reportedly managed to achieve greater success rates in treatment. 39 percent of family based therapy patients were reportedly able to keep away from binging and purging compared to the 20 percent of cognitive based therapy patients.
During the six-month follow up, 44 percent of family-based therapy patients were not binging and purging while 25 percent of the cognitive based therapy patients were able to continue the road to recovery.
"These findings are quite clear," stated Le Grange.
"Family based therapy is the treatment of choice for adolescents with bulimia nervosa, because it works quicker and faster and maintains its impact over time,"
