Inpatient treatment of eating disorders: A cognitive therapy milieu

Inpatient treatment of eating disorders has evolved over the past 20 years. Interventions have progressed from single treatments based on narrow concepts of origin to multidisciplinary approaches. Cognitive therapy has been shown to be effective in outpatient studies, especially with bulimia nervosa, but has yet to be used systematically within an inpatient setting. This article describes the framework of an inpatient unit with psychotherapeutic interventions based on cognitive behavioral principles. The basic structure of the unit is described in terms of the theoretical principles upon which it is based. The team-oriented interventions are described to demonstrate how the patient with an eating disorder is understood and treated.