Body awareness therapy in teenage anorexia nervosa: Outcome after 2 years

Objective: To evaluate the effect of Body Awareness Therapy (BAT), a specific treatment method for dealing with body-image disturbances, in anorexia nervosa in the young patient. Methods: A consecutive group of patients receiving family therapy was randomly assigned to Body Awareness Therapy. The patients were examined at treatment start and at 2-year follow-up. The eating disorder symptoms were evaluated with the Global Clinical Score, Ch-EAT and EDI. The body-image disturbances were examined with the Visual Sie Estimation technique. Results: We found no differences in the overall treatment results between the patients that received BAT compared with the patients who only received family therapy. The patients who received BAT, and had a disturbance in estimated body size, improved in their body image. Discussion: Body Awareness Therapy did not have an effect on the overall outcome of anorexia nervosa, but had a normalizing effect on the distorted body image. Copyright (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and Eating Disorders Association.