Eating disorders among young people: treatment by the family system
The conference with experts organized by the Villa Santa Chiara Nursing Home reflects on how to intervene with multidisciplinary therapy that involves not only the patient but also the parents.
Verona, October 4, 2024 – “Involving the family, especially parents, in the treatment of children with eating disorders is essential, and often involves a process of introspection and self-reflection.
This, in summary, was the speech given by Dr. Maria Zaccagnino, EMDR Supervisor and Facilitator, Scientific Director of the EMDR Therapy Center for Anorexia in Milan, during the conference “The role of parental figures” organized today by the Villa Santa Chiara Nursing Home at its headquarters in Quinto (Verona).
Dr. Zaccagnino focused on the “crucial role of parents of patients with eating disorders, taking care of their experiences”. In her report, she states: “Including parents in the therapeutic process means not only supporting the individual patient, but also intervening in the entire family system, benefiting all its members. In many families, there are situations of latent suffering that are neither addressed nor treated, which continue to negatively influence family dynamics and the healing process.”
Including parents in the therapeutic process means trying to benefit the entire family system. Eating disorders are usually rooted in pain that must be treated and sometimes requires work with the parents, which then affects their son or daughter. There are many situations in which there is significant suffering within the family that has never been addressed or treated.
Eating and nutritional disorders are pathologies that are constantly on the rise, increasing and worsening among the very young, partly as a result of the psychological consequences of Covid, as well as greater awareness and knowledge of the pathologies. The onset of these disorders is occurring at an increasingly early age, affecting boys and girls as young as 10-12 years old, with experts predicting that the age of onset will decrease further in the near future. Three million people in Italy (about 5% of the population) suffer from these disorders, and statistics indicate that 8-10% of girls and 0.5-1% of boys face disorders such as anorexia or bulimia. In 2022-2023, the Veneto Region recorded 1,350 first visits, 3,000 patients treated, 1,000 hospitalizations, and 350 visits to the emergency room.
