Nice write-up on Maudsley Method

A really basic summary at Health News Digest provides a quick, easy read explaining the Maudsley Method (in other words, it's a good handout for people involved in your child's life who need to know the what/why/how of your treatment approach). The story, titled "Milkshakes Are Medicine for Anorexic Teens in Family-Based Outpatient Therapy," looks at research going on at New York's Weill Cornell Medical Colleage comparing family-based treatment to traditional psychotherapy.

Two winning quotes:

"In Maudsley, food is medicine that restores the body and mind. When the body is starving, the mind also weakens, becoming more susceptible to anorexia's rigid, often obsessive logic. Supervised feeding helps to break this vicious cycle. With the anorexia in charge, the adolescent really cannot regain the weight on his or her own. Nutritional rehabilitation gives the brain the nutrition it needs to re-establish healthy eating habits," says Dr. Dara Bellace, a clinical psychologist at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Westchester Division and an instructor of psychology in psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College.

"This approach does not blame parents, but rather calls on their ability to nurse their child back to health. It requires a strong commitment to be with them for every meal -- something that can mean rearranging schedules and taking a tag-team approach to sharing the responsibility," adds Dr. Bellace. "The adolescent must also dedicate themselves to the therapy, understanding that, until they regain the weight, their parents will be feeding them much as they did when they were younger, deciding what and how much they eat and making sure they finish."

Happy reading!