When have eating disordered patients recovered and what do the DSM-IV criteria tell about recovery?

Lack of consensus about criteria for recovery from eating disorders results in greatly varying percentages of recovered patients. Outcome studies not only use different criteria for recovery, but also quite different instruments, rendering their results incomparable. The same problem occurs among studies of predictors for recovery from eating disorders. Without consensus on criteria for recovery, it is not clear which goals of treatment are important to realize full recovery. In order to develop larger consensus on criteria for recovery, this study critically analyzes the most important outcome scores and the criteria for recovery deduced from the DSM-IV.