Researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine have begun searching for effective treatment for anorexia through family therapy.

The research team, led by Professor Denise Wilfley, director of the Weight Management and Eating Disorders Program at the School of Medicine, Professor Dorothy Van Buren and Professor Rob Wench joined five other institutions in a joint project coordinated by the National Institute of Mental Health.

According to Wench, 0.5 percent of the population, mostly female adolescents, is afflicted with anorexia nervosa, a condition occurring when the patient’s weight is below 85 percent of their expected weight at their height.

The psychiatric disease also increases the risk of anything from osteoporosis to cardiovascular and gastrointestinal problems.

What makes anorexia problematic is its mortality rate, the highest for all psychiatric diseases. In addition, anorexia has only a 25 percent recovery rate.

“It’s very overwhelming to think that if you have it and you’ve had it for over five years, your chance of recovery is very slim,” said Wench. “The reason anorexia is so important is the mortality rate.”

Improving first-time treatment for anorexia nervosa is important due to the chronic nature of the disease. The more chronic the problem becomes, the harder it is to treat and the higher the chance becomes for mortality.

If anorexia develops within the first three years, however, the chances of recovery are much better, according to Wench.

That is where the University and its five partner centers come into play.

The goal of the NIH research is to improve the odds for complete recovery and to raise them from their current status of 25 percent. The focus will be on different types of family therapy and the use of Prozac.

“This is the first time that the National Institute of Mental Health has actually funded a collaborative study like this,” said Wench. “We’re really excited to be part of the six-center study.”

The researchers will be comparing the effects of two different types of family therapy, both of which include 16 one-hour sessions over the course of nine months, on the 240 participants.

Washington University will be treating 40 of the 240 participants and their families.

The patients will either receive Behavioral Family Therapy (BFT) or Systems Family Therapy (SFT). Additionally, half of each group will receive Prozac, while the other half will recieve a placebo.

BFT focuses on breaking the cycle when a family becomes used to the disease. SFT focuses on “holding up a mirror” to the family, according to Wench, to see the effects of anorexia on the family as a whole.

The University is looking for participants between ages 12 and 18 in the St. Louis area. According to Professor Wench, doctors don’t usually see anorexia start after age 18. Both genders are welcome to participate, although males make up only 10 percent of all anorexia patients.

Anyone interested in participating should contact the project coordinator, Nichole Cecil, at 314-286-0076.

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