Nursing Interventions for Anorexic Individual

1. Gaining an anorexic individual's cooperation is best accomplished by acknowledging his or her desire for thinness and control and stimulating motivation for change.
2. Do a self-assessment and be aware of your own reactions that might hinder your ability to help the client. some nurses might (Gorman et al., 1996): a. Feel shocked or disgusted by the client's behavior or appearance; b. resent the client, believing that the disorder is self-inflicted; c. feel helpless to change the client's behavior, leading to anger, frustration and criticism; d. become overwhelmed by the client's problems, leading to feelings of hopelessness or setting rigid limits to feel more in control of the client's behavior; e. be swept up into power struggles with the client, resulting in angry feelings in the nurse toward the client. When any of theses or other negative feelings toward the client arise, supervision or peer review is needed to help shape the nurse's perspective and lessen feelings of helplessness, guilt, need for control, frustration or hopelessness.
3. When problems in the family contribute to the feeling of loss of control, family therapy has provided a significant improvement rate.
4. Individual therapy and group therapy are essential in treating clients with eating disorders. Treatment for anorectic clients often includes a behavior modification program, especially initially. Family therapy and family education are often key to a client's success.
5. Behavior therapy is often used to change the eating patterns of an anorexic who is seriously close to death. This is usually implemented after the anorexic has been tubefed to prevent death.
6. Refrain from focusing on the person's need to eat; recognize that other, nonfood factors are the heart of the problem.
7. Monitor lab values, and report any abnormal values to primary clinician.