Maudsley family therapy

Maudsley family therapy also known as family-based treatment or Maudsley approach, is a family therapy for the treatment of anorexia nervosa devised by Christopher Dare and colleagues at the Maudsley Hospital in London. A comparison of family to individual therapy was conducted with eighty anorexia patients. The study showed family therapy to be the more effective approach in patients under 18 and within 3 years of the onset of their illness. Subsequent research confirmed the efficacy of family-based treatment for teens with anorexia nervosa. Family-based treatment has been adapted for bulimia nervosa and showed promising results in a randomized controlled trial comparing it to supportive individual therapy.

Maudsley Family Therapy is an evidenced-based approach to the treatment of anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa whose efficacy has been supported by empirical research.

Phases of treatment

There are three phases involved in the Maudsley method, the treatment usually lasts one year and involves between 15-20 sessions. Daniel Le Grange, PhD and James Lock, MD, PhD describe the treatment as follows: