Parental Expressed Emotion And Eating Disorders

The first to synthesize the exponentially growing research on expressed emotion (EE) and eating disorders and apply it to treatment, interventions, and other scenarios, this unique text provides unprecedented guidance to students, clinicians, and researchers in the field of eating disorders. This book explores the components of relatives’ attitudes and behaviors toward an ill family member and discusses a modifiable treatment target that could improve outcomes for patients through interventions, treatment plans, and future directions in research. Chapters bring together contributions from eminent scientists and clinicians in the fields of families, eating disorders, and treatment to contribute to the clinical and scholarly understanding of expressed emotion and eating disorders. Mental health professionals studying and treating eating disorders will find this text to be a valuable reference guide and will be inspired to further explore this rich and promising area of study.

Background and Aims:Family-based therapy for eating disorders is one of the most effective forms of treatment for adolescents. Expressed emotion has also been shown to modulate treatment outcome for these patients. However, little is still known about how family characteristics such as parental expressed emotion may impact family health and functioning on adolescent prognosis. Therefore, our aim was to investigate whether parents whose daughters present ED improve on expressed emotion as a result of a family-based intervention. Methods:One hundred and twenty-three parents whose daughters presented ED and received group therapy treatment at Niu00f1o Jesus hospital in Madrid participated in this randomized experiment. Whereas the experimental group was subjected to a family-based training (8-week sessions for about 2 hours), the control group had no training. Before and after this training (or the same amount of time for the control group), parents were administered the Level of Expressed Emotion (LEE) scale.Results:The family-based intervention improved parental expression emotion. Specifically, there were significant reductions in the levels of intrusiveness and hostility (near statistical significance) of parents belonging to the experimental group. No significant differences were found, though, for the other dimensions: emotional response, attitude toward illness, and tolerance.Conclusions:These findings provide evidence of improved parental expressed emotion in response to this family-based intervention for eating disorders in adolescents. Favoring the emotional climate and attitudes to significant others in families affected with eating disorders may also be associated with better treatment outcomes.

Skills-based Caring equips carers with the skills and knowledge needed to support those suffering from an eating disorder, and to help them to break free from the traps that prevent recovery. Through a coordinated approach, it offers detailed techniques and strategies, which aim to improve professionals' and carers' ability to build continuity of support for their loved ones. Using evidence-based research and personal experience, the authors advise the reader on a number of difficult areas in caring for someone with an eating disorder. This new and updated edition is essential reading for both professionals and families involved in the care and support of anyone with an eating disorder.

This groundbreaking volume presents a new conceptual approach to treating adults with eating disorders and their children. By utilizing Parent-Based Prevention, a state-of-the-art intervention program from Stanford University for families who risk raising children in the context of parental eating disorders, Parents with Eating Disorders offers a practical, evidence-based manual to working with affected families with the goal of preventing disordered eating from being passed to future generations. Additional resources include intervention planning and self-assessment forms intended for clinicians to use as they implement the program.

This book provides guidance for clinicians working with families and carers. It demonstrates how active collaboration between professional and non-professional carers can maximise quality of life for both the sufferer and all other family members.

Eating disorders (ED) are a group of mental disorders characterized by an altered food intake and the presence of inappropriate behaviors and thoughts about weight and shape. All EDs lead to physical and psychosocial functioning impairments in the patients which, in turn, may contribute to the persistence of the disease. The severity of EDs has been highlighted by their chronicity, medical complications, comorbidity, and high rates of mortality. Therefore, to address this important health issue, the current Special Issue collected 21 articles (i.e., three reviews and 18 research articles) focusing on the most recent and relevant scientific findings regarding advances in ED, such as genetic and epigenetic factors, biomarkers, comorbidity, clinical phenotypes, neurocognition, treatment predictors, and treatment models and therapeutic targets. Altogether, we believe that the articles contained in this Special Issue have largely achieved the initial objective of providing increased knowledge about the pathogenesis, the risk factors, the maintenance factors, and the most appropriate treatments tools for ED.