Why family therapy in anorexia ?

[ginorwine]

A friend of mines dd is anorexic .
They are told that the triggers for this illness is likely to be of a heriditary nature or damage at birth that manafests in teen years.
They have been told that part of the treatment may be family therapy .
i think that older ? Models of psychiatry used to look at family dynamics and illness - such as r d Laing .
What role will family therapy take - they are anxious about this as well as the whole situation . Thanks.

Thanks I will pass this info on .

Please don't try to put her off. Family therapy often very important in ED and it's moved on a great deal from the days of Laing.

NICE guidelines recommend family interventions

www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg9/chapter/1-recommendations

Thanks .i think that she doesn't understand its role if the illness doesn't develop in part due to family dynamics but would more understand the term family support , coping techniques etc .

we've had lots of family therapy over the years and the very best of it was when my daughter was an inpatient in an nhs ED unit, it was so incredibly helpful and marked a real turning point - it's important to involve the whole family in treatment, everyone has to pull together