Wider perspectives in the behavioural treatment of anorexia nervosa: a case study

Hospital-based operant conditioning programmes have been reported as the most effective treatment available for anorexia nervosa. Two refinements of these techniques are outlined and illustrated in this case study. In the first, the external controls on the patient's activities imposed by the operant programme are relaxed in stages as weight increases, allowing the patient to assume progressively more self-control. The second entails re-educative therapy designed to develop adequate covert and behavioural responses for coping with the psycho-social consequences of weight gain and with other environmental stresses.