Table 1.
Treatments of different eating disorders.
| Eating Disorder | Treatments (Non-Drug) | Medications |
|---|---|---|
| Anorexia nervosa (AN) | Short-term hospitalization [80,81,82]. | There is no single effective drug approved for the treatment of anorexia nervosa. |
| Home-based therapy is the evidence-based treatment for teenagers with anorexia [83,84]. | Anti-anxiety medications help anorectics to comply with nutritional rehabilitation programs [85,86]. | |
| Nutritional counseling: Nutritional counseling is the main line of nutritional recovery and is designed to teach anorexics about their body’s need for food and essential nutrients [87,88,89]. | Antipsychotics are also recommended in selected AN patients, who are not to eat in spite of ongoing anti-anxiety medications [90,91]. | |
| Individual therapy: Anticipatory behavior therapy, specifically augmentative cognitive–behavioral therapy, contributes to adults [92,93]. | Altered regulation of the hormone leptin may play role in the persistence of anorexia nervosa [94,95]. | |
| Bulimia nervosa (BN) | Psychotherapy: Also called talk therapy, this type of counseling can include cognitive–behavioral therapy, family-based therapy, and interpersonal psychotherapy [96,97,98]. | Antidepressants, such as selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (SSRIs) (including Celexa, Lexapro, Prozac, and Zoloft) in combination with psychological therapies, are now a mainstay in bulimia therapy [99,100,101]. |
| Dietitian support and nutritional education: A nutritionist can design a meal plan to help develop healthy eating habits 102,103]. | No medications are approved to treat bulimia nervosa. | |
| Binge eating disorder (BED) | Cognitive–behavioral therapy (CBT): CBT is highly effective in reducing the number of binge eating episodes in individuals [104,105,106]. | Lisdexamfetamine dimesylate (LDX) is currently the only drug approved by the FDA for the treatment of binge eating disorder [73,74,107]. |
| Interpersonal psychotherapy: It can help reduce binge eating triggered by bad communication abilities and relationships [108,109,110]. | Weight loss drugs: Xenical, Contrave, Qsymia, etc. [111,112,113]. | |
| The act of dialectic behavior therapy: It reduces the desire to overeat through studying behavioral skills that can help regulate emotions and perfect relationships with other people [114,115,116]. | Topiramate (Topamax), an anticonvulsant antidepressant [117,118,119,120]. |