Conventional Approaches to Eating Disorders . . .

well . . .

People Magazine met with the distinguished expert Dr. Ira Sacker, head of the Eating Disorders Clinic at Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center, author of the1987 book Dying To Be Thin.

They asked Dr. Sacker:

What causes anorexia?

"No one is really sure."

And in other ways, conventional treatments of eating disorders leave much to be desired:

"Her concerned parent, on the advice of their pediatrician, took Jennifer to a psychologist. "She told us, 'This is a quick fix, a couple of visits.'" says Marlene. She was wrong: Shortis would spend 3 1/2 years going from one treatment center to another."

According to a 1999 Harvard study of 136 anorexics seeking treatment, such as hospitalization and psychiatric help, only 33 percent achieved full recovery within the 90 months they were followed.

Moreover, 40 percent of those who had succeeded suffered a relapse within four years.

According to Dr. Sacker: "Relapse rates are getting worse."

Yet this does not seem to discourage many experts from making a great deal of money treating theseindividuals.

"And despite repeated medical intervention, her condition was so intractable by the summer of 2000 that her parents' insurer - which had already paid more than $100,000 in anorexia-related costs - balked at paying for more treatment."

"They had her admitted to Hampstead and persuaded the insurace company to conver a roughly $18,000, one-month stay"

(Source: People Weekly,"To Anorexia and Back," November 19th, 2001.)

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