Pharmacotherapy of eating disorders.

Eating disorders are complex, chronic disorders that are difficult to treat. In addition, the 2 primary eating disorders, anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa, may have acute, life-threatening consequences. Medication trials for eating disorders have been hampered by high dropout rates, high placebo response, short trial duration, insufficient doses, and difficult outcome measures. Only 1 medication has been FDA approved for any eating disorder to date, and that is for fluoxetine in the treatment of bulimia. Clearly, new large-scale, independent studies using novel agents, and studying the use of medications for both short- and long-term outcomes, are needed.