Changes Needed in Treatment of Patients with Eating Disorders and Substance Use Disorders

Most publically and privately funded substance abuse treatment facilities neither provide nor include multidisciplinary evidence-based treatment for patients with eating disorders, according to Dr. Amy Baker Dennis, Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of South Florida, Tampa. As Dr. Dennis noted in a presentation at the recent 2014 iaedp Symposium in Florida, such integrated treatment is similarly lacking in eating disorders inpatient, residential, partial hospitalizations and intensive outpatient programs. She added that integrated treatment is necessary to combat the high rates of comorbidity seen in these patients. She also noted that 50% of eating disorders patients abuse substances. This is a rate 5 times that for the general population.