Treatment of Bulimia Nervosa: A Clinical Practice Guideline

Lee, Young Ho

Abstract

Since Russell described bulimia nervosa as an independent and distinctive eating problem, it has been regarded as one of the rapidly increasing problems during the past two decades in Western society. However, in the past few years, the number of reports concerning eating disorders have increased in developing countries including Korea with the rapid introduction of the Western culture accompanied by economic development. Most individuals suffering from bulimia nervosa can be treated as outpatients. Patients with uncomplicated bulimia nervosa rarely require hospitalization and may achieve clinical improvement with nutritional management or counseling, individual or group cognitive-behavioral therapy(CBT), behavioral techniques, and interpersonally oriented or psychodynamically oriented psychotherapies. However, in clinical practice, CBT with nutritional counseling or inter-personal psychotherapy is a usual method chosen for the treatment of such patients in combination with pharmacotherapy. This review aimed at giving a compact and systemized account of the clinical guidelines that we consider essential in the management of patients with bulimia nervosa. The author also introduced treatment experience with bulimic patients at Seoul Paik Hospital.