ABSTRACT Objective Recovery rates for adolescent anorexia nervosa (AN) remain poor, requiring creativity within the field to explore alternative treatment options. One novel, evidence‐informed approach integrates both family/parent and individual adolescent‐focussed treatment components, through an individualised developmental lens. This study aimed to offer preliminary insights on early response to Adolescent and Parent Treatment (APT) in terms of 8‐week weight trajectory. Method A naturalistic, repeated measures design was employed. Twenty‐four adolescents with AN or atypical AN receiving APT as standard care were identified from a specialist private outpatient clinic. Anthropometrics and psychometrics were collected at baseline, with repeat anthropometrics 8‐week later. Results A significant increase in weight was found from baseline to 8‐week follow‐up (2.57 kg; p < 0.001), with a large effect size ( d = 1.22). No associations were found between baseline clinical features and degree of weight recovery. Conclusions This small, exploratory study provides preliminary support for meaningful early weight recovery in APT, at a similar trajectory to that found in current first line treatment. This suggests little consequence to early weight recovery goals when integrating individual psychological support with the adolescent alongside parent‐lead re‐feeding, from the start of treatment. Further empirical investigation of the treatment package is indicated.
Roberts et al. (Sun,) studied this question.