“I’m still here, but no one hears you”: a qualitative study of young women’s experiences of persistent distress post family-based treatment for adolescent anorexia nervosa

Abstract

Plain English summary Family-Based Treatment (FBT) is a well-established, intensive approach to the treatment of adolescent anorexia nervosa (AN). The first phase of treatment focuses on eating and weight restoration, where parents are given responsibility for the adolescent’s home-based refeeding. This is followed by handing over of this responsibility to the adolescent with the final-phase a focusing on adolescent-specific psychological issues. While the majority of adolescents gain weight with this treatment, a substantive proportion experience ongoing psychological distress and around a quarter of families drop out in the first phase. Little is known about these adolescents’ experiences. In this project, we interviewed 14 individuals who, with their family, had either dropped out of FBT and/or experienced ongoing psychological distress post-treatment. The participants noted that their parents’ stance in supporting them was life-saving and contributed to a sense that their life was worth saving. However, they also noted a relative absence of focus on their psychological distress, particularly in the early stages of treatment. Most helpful for participants was when therapists took into consideration and tailored treatments to them. Future treatments need to consider ways to support an adolescent’s psychological distress more comprehensively, prioritise their voice and support them in finding an identity outside of the AN identity.

Keywords

• Adolescent anorexia nervosa
• Maudsley family therapy
• Family-based treatment
• Experience
• Identity
• Qualitative