Mar 19, 2008

Hospital expands eating disorders help

Young adults now admitted for treatment

By Kristina Peterson / Daily News Staff Writer

Lucile Packard Children's Hospital announced Tuesday it will extend a treatment program for eating disorders to young adults between the ages of 18 and 21.

Effective immediately, the hospital's Comprehensive Eating Disorders Program will accept older patients, including students at Stanford University, up to the age of 21.

Dr. James Lock, the program's psychiatric director, said Tuesday that the hospital decided to expand its program as demand for it increased.

Recently, the program had started to accommodate patients over 18 who had begun treatment in their earlier teenage years. And, Lock said, the hospital has been receiving an increasing number of calls for older patients.

"There is also a perceived need at Stanford University for new undergraduates (to get treatment)," Lock said.

Naomi Brown, an eating disorders treatment specialist at Stanford's Vaden Health Care, said the program will help treat the university's most critical patients.

"Having access to such a renowned program is very important to those eating disordered students who need a higher level of care," Brown said in a statement.

To accommodate the new age group, the Lucile Packard Children's Hospital program has added additional staff and a third "intake" day for patients to obtain a diagnosis and evaluation, Lock said.

Presently, the program treats somewhere between 300 and 400 people on both an in-patient and outpatient basis, and staff is expecting an additional 50 to 100 older patients to enter this year.

While eating disorders most commonly occur during adolescence, young people just gaining independence are also particularly susceptible, said Peach Friedman, a Sacramento-based eating disorder educator.

"That's when we're stepping into adulthood. There are a lot of changes going on in a person's life then. It's a really common time (for eating disorders) to be triggered," said Friedman, who herself developed an eating disorder around the age of 20, while in college.

Treating patients over the age of 18 comes with a host of new challenges, particularly if the person has struggled with the disease for a long time, Lock said.

"It's like discovering a cancer farther out. It's more complicated and harder to treat," he said.

Older patients more often struggle with drug and alcohol abuse on top of their eating disorders, he noted.

The role of family in the treatment process changes as well, he said. Once patients turn 18, their parents cannot force them to enter the program.

But Friedman noted this can be an advantage when patients have actively sought out help on their own.

Patients in their 20s are often "owning up to their own issues," she said. "People are reaching out and saying 'I want to get help for me.'"



E-mail Kristina Peterson at kpeterson@dailynewsgroup.com.