A Review of Psychotherapeutic Interventions for Children and Adolescents with Eating Disorders

Objective: Psychotherapeutic interventions for child and adolescent eating disorders have recently received increasing atten-tion in the research literature. This article attempts to summarize these studies. Method: The current literature was reviewed using the PubMed and Embase databases under the search terms eating disorders, child, adolescent, and psychotherapy. Here we will present a practical overview of the current evidence for psychotherapeutic interventions in this clinical popula-tion. Results: There have been some very promising findings with regards to specific types of therapy for anorexia nervosa (AN), bulimia nervosa (BN) and binge eating disorder (BED). Conclusions: The best evidence available suggests that family-therapy models are most effective for treating adolescents with AN, and that CBT models are most effective for adolescent BN, although family-based treatment may also be effective for adolescents with BN. Too few studies have been done on BED in adolescents to draw any conclusions; however CBT, IPT and DBT are all theoretically promising. Key words: eating disorders, child, adolescent, psychotherapy Résumé Objectif: Un nombre sans cesse croissant d’articles fait état des travaux de recherche sur les interventions menées auprès des enfants et des adolescents souffrant de troubles du comportement alimentaire. Nous donnons ici un résumé de ces articles. Méthodologie: Nous passerons en revue la littérature et présenterons une vue d’ensemble des résultats actuel