Behavioural eating disorders constitute a number of psychic disorders, the principal manifestation being a perturbation which may be severe and chronic with regard to the subject and his eating. The reasons for these troubles remain ill known at the present time. There are many causes.
Their treatment at the Clinique du Château de Garches is based on a strong therapeutical alliance between the patient and his referent psychiatrist. A care package is defined with the patient, based upon a shared project formulated in a contractual mode. The latter must enable the patient to reach the initially established therapeutic objectives, whilst leaving the patient fully in charge of his healing.
In practice, this care package also comprises therapeutical isolation from the family environment and protecting the patient from recourse to purging (either through vomiting, overuse of laxatives or diuretics or excessive physical exercise). This care pack, which limits resorting to pathological behaviour and facilitates « letting go », is in our opinion the only way to efficiently face irrational and irrepressible behaviour which gives rise to behavioural eating disorders.
The patient works everyday with his consultant psychiatrist, thereby enabling significant progress on the path to recovery. This important task is made possible by the fact that the Clinique du Château de Garches boasts 7 psychiatrists for 44 hospital beds. As a result the treatment is thorough and truly adapted to each person’s needs.
Objectives for regaining weight are fixed after a nutritional, psychological and physiological evaluation of the patient. These goals, once they are reached, give rise to progressive adjustment of the care package and thereby make up just as many positive reinforcing elements which help the patient to become less vulnerable in the face of his illness. They are reviewed weekly with the specialised help of a dietician who establishes the menus with the patient in close cooperation with the medical team.
The implementation of the shared therapeutic project is centred on the psychiatric treatment, around which are articulated other methods of treatment, determined according to an in-depth evaluation of each patient. These activities may include:
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relaxation;
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psycho-motricity;
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art therapy;
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ergo therapy.
Moreover in the Clinique du Château de Garches we believe it is fundamental to integrate the family and friends in the therapeutic process – with the agreement of the patient – throughout the treatment, despite the systematic isolation at the beginning. As a result the family, in the patient’s presence, will regularly meet the consultant psychiatrist who will supply information necessary to understanding the eating disorders and possibly indicate the need for a more specific form of support.
In the course of his hospitalisation the patient may receive drugs, taking into account either a state of anxiety, depression, excessive hyperactivity, or any other psychic disorder susceptible of interfering with his eating behaviour.
Hospitalisation is just one step – although it is essential – in the treatment of eating disorders.
Treatment set up in the Clinique du Château de Garches is done so in cooperation with the doctor who referred the patient and who will continue carrying out the treatment after discharge from the Clinic.
