Some specific signs and symptoms indicating hospitalization include:

• Significant weight loss or rapid weight loss
• Medical complications from bingeing or purging
• Lack of response to outpatient treatment
• Other associated psychiatric disorders, such as depression, that frequently occur as companions to eating disorders, including obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety disorders, substance abuse and post-traumatic stress disorders.

Some major goals of inpatient hospitalization include:

• Confirming the diagnosis of the eating disorder and companion psychological and medical disorders
• Medical stabilization
• Restoration of body weight to a normal range
• Normalization of eating behavior with social comfort in eating in all situations
• Treatment of core psychological symptoms, especially the fear of fatness and body image distortion
• Treatment of individual psychological symptoms growing out of personal history
• Treatment of commonly co-occurring psychological disorders (depression, anxiety, substance abuse, obsessive-compulsive disorder, vulnerable personality traits, past abuse)
• Improve coping skills, stress management, self-nurturance
• Education support and evaluation of the family system functioning
• Practical preparation for functioning normally in a society preoccupied with weight and shape change including good self esteem, assertiveness, healthy exercise patterns, and social functioning.

Initially, patients are closely supervised and supported while they establish healthy eating behaviors. As they progress toward a healthy goal weight and normal eating patterns, supervision is decreased, and independent eating in everyday setting is encouraged. We use dual programs for patients with eating disorders and substance abuse.

Return to the Eating Disorder Program index page.