[Organization of self-help groups for patients with psychogenic eating disorders]

The author pays attention to the organization of self-help groups of women suffering from anorexia nervosa and bulimia and illustrates them on several examples of self-help groups in the USA, Austria and Czechoslovakia. Great attention is paid to the BASH programme (Bulimia Anorexia Self-help) in St. Louis in the USA, one of the first self-help groups developing within the framework of a therapeutic and research institution for patients with psychogenic eating disorders. In the conclusion of the review the author presents his own experience with the organization of a MAB (mental anorexia--bulimia club) founded in 1989 at the Psychiatric Clinic of the Faculty of General Medicine, Charles University in Prague, attached to the Unit of specialized care of patients with psychogenic eating disorders. He emphasizes the necessity of differentiated and long-term therapeutic action on patients with psychogenic eating disorders where self-help groups hold an irreplaceable place. Attention is drawn to the fact that in addition to detection, emotional and social rehabilitation in the treatment of patients with preclinical symptoms a very important place is held by self-help groups which have a specific therapeutic influence and importance.