Attachment-Based Family Therapy as an Adjunct to Family-Based Treatment for Adolescent Anorexia Nervosa

Abstract

Adolescent anorexia nervosa ( AN) has a significant and long-standing impact for the health and well being of young people and their families. The determinants of illness are multi-factorial, however, adolescent AN has been consistently associated with parental distress (e.g., depression, anxiety, alcoholism), family conflict, and low parental warmth toward the adolescent. Whilst Family Based Therapy ( FBT) for adolescent AN is the recommended first line of treatment, a substantial proportion of patients do not experience remission by the end of therapy or may relapse following remission. Although a range of adjuncts to FBT have been proposed, no preferred model has emerged. In this paper, we compare and contrast Attachment-Based Family Therapy ( ABFT) with FBT, and argue that ABFT's focus on relationships, rather than behaviours, could make a substantive contribution to the practice of FBT. We present a case study to demonstrate how ABFT may help to alleviate some of the maintaining factors of adolescent AN through the repair of parent-child relational ruptures.case study. Journal Subset: Australia & New Zealand; Biomedical. NLM UID: 8511102. <br />