Skip to main content

Table 10 Systemic family therapy for anorexia nervosa

From: Canadian practice guidelines for the treatment of children and adolescents with eating disorders

Certainty assessment

Impact

Certainty

Importance

№ of studies

Study design

Risk of bias

Inconsistency

Indirectness

Imprecision

Other considerations

Systemic Family Therapy vs. FBT- Remission (assessed with: greater than 95% IBW)

 1

randomised trials

not serious

not serious

not serious

not serious

none

One RCT n = 164 (82 in each group, 141 were female). Remission rates were 27/82 in the FBT group and 21/82 in the Systemic Group - not significantly different.

HIGH

CRITICAL

not serious

not serious

not serious

not serious

none

Rate of weight gain were significantly faster in the FBT group compared to the Systemic Group.

HIGH

CRITICAL

not serious

not serious

not serious

not serious

none

No differences were seen in EDE score at end of treatment between FBT and Systemic Therapy

HIGH

CRITICAL

Weight (assessed with: kg)

 3

Case Reports

very serious a,b

not serious

not serious

not serious

none

Three case reports describe the use of systemic family therapy to good effect in terms of weight restoration. One case was a 14 yo male in which only the parents came to some of the sessions, another was a 15 yo female with comorbid osteosarcoma, and another is a 15 yo male.

VERY LOW

IMPORTANT

  1. Explanations
  2. ano control condition
  3. bno randomization
  4. Bibliography:
  5. RCT - Agras 2014 [82]
  6. Case Reports - Carr 1989 [83], De Benedetta 2011 [85], Merl 1989 [84]