title: Meal plan in the treatment of anorexia nervosa: a way of feeding the disorder and starving the patient.
abstract: For the mainstream Psychology/Psychiatry, anorexia nervosa is considered an eating disorder characterized by the low body weight and by the restrictive eating pattern. The traditional psychiatric treatment consists in the establishment of a meal plan that must be scrupulously followed and, most frequently, in pharmacological treatment. We propose an alternative conceptualization of anorexia nervosa that envisages this disorder as pertaining to the control domain. In this sense, we formulate psychiatric intervention as a "pact with anorexia", once it follows the very same logic, prohibitions and self-impositions of the disorder. Specifically, we envisage the meal plan as a way of maintaining anorexia, instead of suppressing it. As we could observe in our four year research project, in which we've followed several anorectic female patients, those who were more committed to their psychiatric treatment were precisely those who had more difficulty in recovering from anorexia - i.e., from renouncing the control from which the disorder lives. Finally, we suggest some fundamental underpinnings to an effective therapeutic approach, based in our conceptualization and understanding of the disorder.
authors.affiliation: University of Porto, Porto, Portugal. mariajoaopadrao@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Maria João
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Padrão
authors.forename: Maria Raquel
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Barbosa
authors.forename: Joaquim Luís
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Coimbra
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000856:Anorexia Nervosa / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy*; D015992:Body Mass Index; D005260:Female; D057227:Femininity; D006801:Humans; D007207:Individuation; D007389:Internal-External Control; D062407:Meals / Q000523:psychology*; D011613:Psychotherapy / Q000379:methods*; D019529:Sexuality / Q000523:psychology; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D015430:Weight Gain; D015431:Weight Loss; D055815:Young Adult