What potential role is there for medication treatment in anorexia nervosa?
Version of Record online: 6 AUG 2008
Copyright © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
International Journal of Eating Disorders
Volume 42, Issue 1, pages 1–8, January 2009
How to Cite
Crow, S. J., Mitchell, J. E., Roerig, J. D. and Steffen, K. (2009), What potential role is there for medication treatment in anorexia nervosa?. Int. J. Eat. Disord., 42: 1–8. doi: 10.1002/eat.20576
- Issue online: 9 DEC 2008
- Version of Record online: 6 AUG 2008
- Manuscript Accepted: 3 JUN 2008
- anorexia nervosa;
To review selected issues regarding the development of drug treatments for anorexia nervosa (AN).
The existing pharmacotherapy literature for AN is reviewed, and the theoretical and practical considerations are discussed.
A very wide variety of drugs have been examined in AN, generally with negative results. There are a number of potential reasons for this finding, including compliance, nutritional deficits, selection of the wrong targets or the wrong outcome measures, use of monotherapy, lack of animal models, or factors intrinsic to AN.
Pharmacotherapy provides little benefit in the treatment of AN at present. Several strategies might lead to the identification of more effective agents, including new measurement strategies, identification of novel pharmacologic targets, and consideration of a clinical trials network. © 2008 by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Eat Disord 2009