One of the many challenges facing patients and their parents is managing expectations of treatment success. It begins with understanding the disease.

Anorexia Nervosa is a chronic disease of the brain for which there is no cure at the present time. But anorexia can be treated successfully in most cases, especially if symptoms are recognized early and medically-based treatment of the disease is pursued aggressively. Much like a person with diabetes, anorexics and their families must learn to treat their condition at home in order maintain the disease in remission. And just as a diabetic is not "cured" but rather learns to maintain his or her disease, a person with anorexia must learn to maintain their disease over the course of their entire lifetime. Kartini Clinic has successfully treated hundreds of patients who live "independent" of the disease, who grow up, go to college, have families if they wish, and who learn that anorexia is a disease, not a state of mind or a personal shortcoming.

And yet, while our understanding of this disease has greatly improved, especially in the areas of genetics and neuro-chemistry, there are still only two methods validated for treating the psychological symptoms of childhood anorexia: group and family therapy.

Kartini Clinic's treatment program utilizes both medical stabilization and supervision as well as psychological intervention and medication in an integrated, multi-disciplinary environment where our patients get the very best medical and psychological treatment available anywhere. In addition to group and family-based treatments some of our patients also see an individual therapist, usually to help manage their medications or to treat co-occurring conditions.

Where Kartini Clinic differs from many treatment programs is our insistence on attaining medical stabilization as a pre-requisite for psychological treatment. We believe strongly that, before any psychological interventions can be effective, a patient with anorexia must be medically stable. Crucially, that means reaching and maintaining a minimum weight for health; without adequate weight gain patients will achieve nothing.

Our emphasis on the medical aspects of eating disorder treatment does not mean we do not address the "whole" person. In fact, the holistic nature of our treatment team is evident in its composition: it includes physical therapists, massage and hypno-therapists, as well as a licensed school teacher (for patients in our day treatment unit).

Medical stabilization, body works and intensive psychological treatments are designed to gain remission for the patient throughout their stay in hospital and/or the Kartini Day Treatment Unit. Treatment should not stop there, however. In order to keep the disease in remission parent involvement is critical: meals at home are supervised, activity levels are monitored, the patient returns to the clinic for visits with the doctors, family therapist, outpatient group therapy, medication management (if any) and other team members as indicated.

Together, we can do it!