Guidelines for discharging eating disorder inpatients

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
This is a five-year telephone interview follow-up study in which 31 of 71 patients from an inpatient eating disorders unit were evaluated by specific criteria for discharge from the hospital and the relationship of those criteria to outcome. The patients or their parents were interviewed regarding current weight, presence or absence of eating-disordered behaviors, menses, etc. Patients who met all discharge criteria when leaving the hospital had a significantly higher percent ideal body weight (rs=.50, p=.004), were more likely to have menses (x2 [1, N=29]=6.87, p=.009), and were less likely to relapse, defined as currently meeting criteria for either anorexia or bulimia nervosa (x2 [1, N=31]=− 2.76, p< .1) than those who did not meet discharge criteria. Younger age at time of treatment was associated with greater percent body weight at follow-up (r=.45, p=.012).