Abstract
Part I gives a general introduction and overview of the research with a naturalistic design that has been done in Amarum. Amarus is a specialized public health centre for the treatment of people with eating disorders where the development of Evidence Based Mental Health (EBMH) and the use of guidelines is of importance. The practice of evidence based medicine means integrating individual clinical expertise with the best available external clinical evidence from systematic research. Guidelines present patient care strategies in order to assist professionals in the clinical decision making. Both EBMH and guidelines are described in the introduction of this thesis because it forms the basis of the working style in Amarum. Part II contains research which is done with patients with Anorexia Nervosa (AN), Bulimia Nervosa (BN) and Eating Disorders Not Otherwise Specified (EDNOS) resembling AN and BN. The 5-day treatment for these patient groups in Amarum is described and has been put next to comparable programs described in literature. In order to get a better view on these patients enrolling the 5-day treatment the patient groups are described by means of personality profiles, differences in eating disorder (ED) subgroups, body attitude and predictors for non-completion. Part III contains research with the patient groups with BED and obesity. These patients are described by means of eating disorder pathology, general psychopathology, their level of depression and their triggers for binge eating. The question if and how treatment should be adjusted to patients with lower and higher Body Mass was important because of the lack of data on Cognitive Behavioural Therapy programs for patients with BED combined with morbid obesity. When we can answer the question which factors trigger binge-eating in patients with BED, therapeutic interventions for eating disorder patients focussing on targeting and coping with these triggers can be used
