What potential role is there for medication treatment in anorexia nervosa?
OBJECTIVE
To review selected issues regarding the development of drug treatments for anorexia nervosa (AN).


METHODS
The existing pharmacotherapy literature for AN is reviewed, and the theoretical and practical considerations are discussed.


RESULTS
A very wide variety of drugs have been examined in AN, generally with negative results. There are a number of potential reasons for this finding, including compliance, nutritional deficits, selection of the wrong targets or the wrong outcome measures, use of monotherapy, lack of animal models, or factors intrinsic to AN.


CONCLUSIONS
Pharmacotherapy provides little benefit in the treatment of AN at present. Several strategies might lead to the identification of more effective agents, including new measurement strategies, identification of novel pharmacologic targets, and consideration of a clinical trials network.
Crow
Scott J
SJ
Department of Psychiatry, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55454-1495, USA. crowx002@umn.edu
Mitchell
James E
JE
Roerig
James D
JD
Steffen
Kristine
K
D000856:Anorexia Nervosa / Q000188:drug therapy*; D006801:Humans