Who recovers best from eating disorders?

Eating disorders have the highest death rate of any mental-health problem and can have long-lasting psychological, social and medical consequences. Patients often resist care as recovery threatens some of the things that they believe the eating disorder gives them - identity, attention, maintining control and preventing maturity. A team of researchers from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center studied 33 girls admitted to an eating-disorder programme in an attempt to see which factors helped or hindered them from regaining weight. The girls completed psychological questionnaires at the start of the study and the researchers were able to compare the results of these with who had succeeded in putting on weight. The study found that higher self-esteem and lower perfectionism were both associated with a quicker recovery.

Phillips, Renee ... [et al] - Psychological variables impacting weigh gain rapidity in adolescents hospitalized for eating disorders European Eating Disorders Review September-October 2010, 18(5), 376-384