Treatment Pathway for Bulimia Nervosa

For Adults

Therapy is recommended as part of the treatment for bulimia in order to tackle the underlying thoughts and feelings that cause the illness and encourage healthier ways of coping.

Therapies recommended to help treat bulimia include:

Guided self-help, which might be working through a self-help book or online programme combined with sessions with a therapist.

Cognitive behavioural therapy – Bulimia Nervosa (CBT-BN), which is CBT that has been adapted to suit the needs of people with bulimia.

Or interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT) as an alternative to CBT.

CBT is likely to be recommended as part of your treatment and may have positive results over a shorter course of treatment than other forms of therapy. However, if CBT isn’t right for you, you can get good results through other therapies too.

For Young People

Many young people with bulimia find it helpful to have a talking therapy that family members or carers can take part in too. This is known as family therapy and involves working with a therapist and allows you to explore how bulimia has affected you and how your family can support you to get better. Family therapy might usually last for approximately 20 sessions.

Family Based Treatment has three phases:

Empowering parents to take control while they help their child to reestablish regular patterns of eating and interrupt restricting and purging behaviours as well as learning tools to support meal times.
Supporting a gradual return of control to the adolescent usually when mealtimes are going smoothly and the young person is showing fewer eating disorder behaviours.
Encouraging the young person to establish a healthy independence and shifting the focus of treatment to developing a healthy identity away from their eating disorder.