P. LEOMBRUNI, F. AMIANTO, V. MONDELLI, G. ABBATE DAGA, D. DOSIO, A. PIERÒ, S. FASSINO - Vol. 9, December 2003, Issue 4
Testo Bibliografia Summary Indice
Trattamento farmacologico dei disturbi del
comportamento alimentare
Pharmacological treatment of eating disorders
Background
Eating Disorders (ED) impair both psychological and physical health; ED
are more prevalent in industrialized nations and affect primarily women. In
spite of the begging difficulties in the understanding of the etiopathogenesis
and then of the therapy of these disorders, recently considerable progresses
have been made in their treatment. This article aims to review the current
evidences of the pharmacological treatment of these disorders.
Method
In the present study we review the results of the main controlled clinical
studies carried out to date in order to assess the efficacy of the different
drugs introduced in the treatment of ED.
Results
Drug trials about anorexia nervosa (AN) resulted insufficient to give
univocal guidelines for the treatment. In contrast, several studies have shown
an important role for SSRI antidepressants in the treatment of bulimia nervosa
(BN). The still few pharmacological trials for binge eating disorders (BED)
have identified several promising drugs. The article show also the utility
of combined medication and psychotherapy.
Conclusions
While for BN an effective guideline of treatment has been demonstrated
with the use of SSRI, as regards AN further studies are needed not only to
confirm the discussed efficacy of SSRI and olanzapine, but also to demonstrate
the possible advantage of different approaches of treatment in the different
phases of the disorder also in consideration of the complexity of AN. The
trials on BED show a good short-term efficacy of the pharmacological treatment,
further studies are needed to confirm this efficacy on the long-term treatment.