Patricia T. Siegel

Family Therapy versus Individual Therapy for Adolescent Females with Anorexia Nervosa

Behavioral family systems therapy (BFST) was compared with ego-oriented individual therapy (EOIT) in a controlled, random-assignment investigation involving 22 young adolescents with anorexia nervosa. Each adolescent and her parents received approximately 16 months of outpatient therapy along with a common medical and dietary regimen. BFST emphasized parental control over eating and weight gain, coupled with cognitive restructuring and problem-solving communication training. EOIT emphasized building ego strength, adolescent autonomy, and insight into the emotional blocks to eating. BFST produced greater change on body-mass index than did EOIT, but both treatments produced comparable improvements on eating attitudes, body shape dissatisfaction, interoceptive awareness, depression/internalizing psychopathology, and eating-related family conflict. The implications of these results for the clinician who treats adolescents with anorexia nervosa are discussed. J Dev Behav Pediatr 15:111–116, 1994. Index terms: anorexia nervosa, adolescents, family therapy, individual therapy.

Academic achievement and psychological adjustment in short children

Limited information is available on the educational and behavioral functioning of short children. Through 27 participating medical centers, we administered a battery of psychologic tests to 166 children referred for growth hormone (GH) treatment (5 to 16 years) who were below the third percentile for height (mean height = -2.7 SD). The sample consisted of 86 children with isolated growth-hormone deficiency (GHD) and 80 children with idiopathic short stature (ISS). Despite average intelligence, absence of significant family dysfunction, and advantaged social background, a large number of children had academic underachievement. Both groups showed significant discrepancy (p < .01) between IQ and achievement scores in reading (6%), spelling (10%), and arithmetic (13%) and a higher-than-expected rate of behavior problems (GHD, 12%, p < .0001; ISS, 10%, p < .0001). Behavior problems included elevated rates of internalizing behavior (e.g., anxiety, somatic complaints) and externalizing behavior (e.g., impulsive, distractable, attention-seeking). Social competence was reduced in school-related activities for GHD patients (6%, p < .03). The high frequency of underachievement, behavior problems, and reduced social competency in these children suggests that short stature itself may predispose them to some of their difficulties. Alternately, parents of short, underachieving children may be more likely to seek help. In addition, some problems may be caused by factors related to specific diagnoses.

Behavior change after growth hormone treatment of children with short stature

OBJECTIVES To measure the prevalence of behavioral and learning problems among children with short stature and to assess the effect of growth hormone (GH) treatment on such problems. STUDY DESIGN A total of 195 children with short stature (age range 5 to 16 years, mean age 11.2 years) were tested for intelligence, academic achievement, social competence, and behavior problems before beginning GH therapy and yearly during 3 years of treatment. Children were classified as having growth hormone deficiency (GHD) when GH responses to provocative stimuli were <10 ng/mL (n = 109) and as having idiopathic short stature (ISS) when >10 ng/mL (n = 86). A normal-statured matched comparison group was tested at the baseline only. RESULTS Seventy-two children in the GHD group and 59 children in the ISS group completed 3 years of GH therapy and psychometric testing. Mean IQs of the children with short stature were near average. IQs and achievement scores did not change with GH therapy. Child Behavior Checklist scores for total behavior problems were higher (P < .001) in the children with short stature than in the normal-statured children. After 3 years of GH therapy these scores were improved in patients with GHD (P < .001) and ISS (P < .003). Also, there was improvement in the scores of children in the GHD group in the internalizing subscales (withdrawn: P < .007; somatic complications, P < .001; anxious/depressed, P < .001) and on the 3 components of the ungrouped subscales (attention, social problems, and thought problems, each P = .001). Larger effects were observed in the GHD group than in the ISS group. CONCLUSIONS Many referred children with short stature have problems in behavior, some of which ameliorate during treatment with GH.

Links between Growth Hormone Deficiency, Adaptation and Social Phobia

Children referred for growth hormone (GH) treatment have increased school achievement problems, lack appropriate social skills and show several forms of behavior problems. A multicenter study in the United States has revealed that many GH-impaired children exhibit a cluster of behavioral symptoms involving disorders of mood and attention. Anxiety, depression, somatic complaints and attention deficits have been identified. These symptoms decline in frequency over a period of 3 years, beginning shortly after GH replacement therapy is started. Many of the patients who have received GH and had good growth responses show lower than average quality of life in young adulthood after treatment is completed. GH-deficient adults placed on GH therapy report improvement in psychological well-being and health status, suggesting that GH might have a central neuroendocrine action. Among a group of adults who were GH deficient as children, we find a high incidence of social phobia, a psychiatric disorder linked to GH secretion and usually accompanied by poor life quality. An ongoing study of non-GH-deficient short individuals suggests that short stature is not the cause of this outcome. We conclude that the origins of psychiatric comorbidities, such as social phobia and depression, in GH deficient adults are likely to be neuroendocrine as well as psychosocial.

Family Therapy with Eating-Disordered Adolescents

Eating disorders represent potentially life-threatening conditions that impede physical, emotional, and behavioral growth and development. The prognosis is positive if an adolescent’s eating disorder is treated soon after its onset; otherwise, the disorder may become a chronic condition by adulthood, with devastating and sometimes irreversible medical, behavioral, and emotional consequences (Lask & Bryant-Waugh, 1993).