Treatment of anorexia nervosa with behavior modification. Effectiveness of formula feeding and isolation.

Anorexia nervosa has been treated with a variety of therapies. One seemingly successful modality, behavioral modification, has in most cases been used concurrently with various drugs, making the contributions of each impossible to separate. Eight patients meeting rigorous criteria for anorexia nervosa were treated in this study exclusively with behavioral therapy (reward contingent on weight gain). All had a substantial weight gain while hospitalized, and on short-term follow-up are maintaining or continuing to gain toward their normal weight range on individualized positive-reinforcement programs.