Follow-up investigation of family relations in patients with anorexia nervosa

Abstract

In a group of 22 formerly anorectic inpatients (follow-up 3.8 years after treatment) and in a control group of 24 paralleled young women, the subjective perception of the family structure was assessed using the "Subjective Family Image (SFI)", in order to investigate the question whether the family structure of former anorectics differs from the controls and whether individual development of the former inpatients is associated with the experienced family structure. Empirical results are in favor of the following two hypotheses: 1) Compared to the control group, formerly anorectic inpatients experience family relationships as more complicated and less satisfying. The quality of family relationships in the patient group is reduced, even at the time of follow-up. 2) Individual outcome (individual course of the illness) and quality of family relationships at time of follow-up are associated. Patients with a good outcome experience family relationships as more positive than patients with a poor outcome. The accordance of these findings to other empirical results and their implications for clinical practice are discussed.