MAY 2009, VOLUME 37 NUMBER 1, Abstract 1
THE PLACE OF HYPNOSIS IN PSYCHIATRY, PART 3: THE APPLICATION TO THE TREATMENT OF EATING DISORDERS
Tom Kraft, Formerly of Harley Street, London1
David Kraft, Private practice, Harley Street, London
This paper, the third in the present series, is based on a world-wide search of the literature focusing on the application of hypnotherapy in the treatment of eating disorders. According to DSM-IV (American Psychiatric Association, 1994), eating disorders are broadly divided into two main groups – anorexia nervosa (AN) and bulimia nervosa (BN). There is also an intermediate group where there are components of both anorexia and bulimia present and some authors refer to this as “bulimerexia” (Thiessen, 1983). The authors review a range of treatment procedures which have been shown to be highly effective for the treatment of both anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. Some of these treatments are based on behavioural lines others are psychodynamically oriented, while a third group involves a combination of these approaches. Detailed accounts of the treatment procedures are given so that hypnotherapy practitioners may incorporate these techniques in clinical practice.