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Long-term recovery is common in eating disorders

Approximately two-thirds of females with eating disorders recovered by age 22 years and recovery while bulimia nervosa occurred earlier, recovery from anorexia nervosa continued over the long-term, according to recent findings.

“These findings challenge the notion that eating disorders are a life sentence,” Kamryn Eddy, PhD, of Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, said in a press release. “While the road to recovery is often long and winding, most people will ultimately get better. I’ve had patients say to me, ‘Food and my body are only parts of who I am now; neither defines me anymore,’ or ‘My life became more full, and there just wasn’t room on my plate anymore for the eating disorder.’”

Kamryn Eddy

To assess early and long-term recovery from anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa, researchers conducted clinical interviews with females with DSM-III-R or DSM-IV anorexia or bulimia at 9 years’ follow-up and 20 to 25 years’ follow-up. Overall, 77% of the original cohort were re-interviewed (n = 228).

At 22 years’ follow-up, 62.8% of participants with anorexia and 68.2% with bulimia had recovered, compared with 31.4% with anorexia and 68.2% with bulimia at 9 years’ follow-up.

Approximately half of participants with anorexia who had not recovered by 9 years recovered at 22 years.

Early recovery was associated with increased likelihood for long-term recovery in anorexia (OR = 10.5; 95% CI, 3.77-29.28; P < .01) but not for bulimia (OR = 1; 95% CI, 0.49-2.05).

“We set the bar for recovery as being a year without symptoms, and we found that most of those who do recover will stay recovered over time. Still a small subset of patients in both groups did relapse, and we need to work harder to identify predictors of relapse to promote enduring recovery,” Eddy said in the release. “With my patients, I try to emphasize how serious these illnesses are to help mobilize them for treatment. Our current data argue both that early symptom change increases the chance for long-term recovery, which can motivate new patients to engage in treatment, and that improvements continue even over the long term, which can encourage patients who have been ill longer to keep working towards recovery.” – by Amanda Oldt

Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.