ABSTRACT
Living with a loved one with an eating disorder can have a significant impact on the mental and physical health of individual family members. Carers frequently report that they lack the skills and resources required to care for their loved one with an eating disorder. Consequently, in this chapter we summarise the background that relates to the reasons for working with family members and other carers of people with eating disorders. We include some basic details about the clinical presentation and the underlying causal processes in eating disorders, but a full discussion of these is beyond the scope of this chapter. We review what information there is from evidence-based guidelines and randomised trials with regards to working with families. We also discuss the wider body of evidence such as that from naturalistic outcome studies, pertaining to family factors in the maintenance of eating disorder. Finally, we describe the history and evolution of family-based interventions.
