ArticleBMC psychiatry2013
Resistance to treatment and change in anorexia nervosa [corrected]: a clinical overview.
Article in BMC psychiatry, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 62 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
62 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Psilocybin in the treatment of eating disorders: a systematic review of the literature and registered clinical trials.Eating and weight disorders : EWD · 2025Pooled it
- Psychological Effects of Nasogastric Tube (NGT) in Patients with Anorexia Nervosa: A Systematic Review.Nutrients · 2024Pooled it
- Apps targeting anorexia nervosa in young people: a systematic review of active ingredients.Translational behavioral medicine · 2023Pooled it
- Investigating service users' perspectives of eating disorder services: A meta-synthesis.Clinical psychology & psychotherapy · 2022Pooled it
- Encapsulated faecal microbiota transfer in young women with anorexia nervosa: an open-label feasibility pilot trial.Nature communications · 2025Trial
- Subjective evaluation of outpatient treatment for adolescent patients with anorexia nervosa.Eating and weight disorders : EWD · 2020Trial
- Examining the Factor Structure and Subgroup Invariance of the Deliberate Denial of Disordered Eating Behaviors Scale.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Associations between symptom change and treatment satisfaction in specialized eating disorder treatment.Journal of eating disorders · 2026Article
- Understanding experiences of psychedelic treatments for eating disorders: a meta-synthesis of qualitative studies.BMC medicine · 2026Review
- Parenteral dextrose during refeeding is associated with electrolyte deficiencies in anorexia nervosa: a route-specific analysis of oral and parenteral nutrition.Journal of eating disorders · 2026Article
- Dietary Fat and Carbohydrate Exposure During a Group-Based Nutritional Psychoeducational Program in Anorexia Nervosa.Nutrients · 2026Observational
- "Invented medicine"? Alliance building in first encounters between clinicians and adolescents with anorexia nervosa: a qualitative study.Journal of eating disorders · 2026Article
- Prospective associations among nonverbal reasoning abilities, illness duration, and eating disorder symptoms in anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa.Journal of eating disorders · 2026Article
- "Normal" vs. "difficult" cases with eating disorders: the therapists' perspective.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Exploring MDMA assisted therapy in eating disorders: mechanisms, clinical evidence, and future directions.Journal of eating disorders · 2025Review
- Efficacy of pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions for the treatment of anorexia nervosa in adolescents and adults (EfaNosa): protocol for a network meta-analysis.Systematic reviews · 2025Article
- Utilising genomic association data for causal inference in anorexia nervosa.Mammalian genome : official journal of the International Mammalian Genome Society · 2025Review
- Countertransference in the treatment of patients with eating disorders.Journal of eating disorders · 2025Review
- Understanding the structure of insight in eating disorders: validation of the SAI-ED in a Spanish clinical sample.Journal of eating disorders · 2025Article
- Predicting anorexia nervosa treatment efficacy: an explainable machine learning approach.Journal of eating disorders · 2025Article
2 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundCurrent literature on Eating Disorders (EDs) is devoid of evidence-based findings providing support to effective treatments, mostly for anorexia nervosa (AN). This lack of successful guidelines may play a role in making these disorders even more resistant. In fact, many individuals do not respond to the available treatments and develop an enduring and disabling illness. With this overview we aimed to highlight and discuss treatment resistance in AN--with an in-depth investigation of resistance-related psychological factors.A literature search was conducted on PubMed and PsychINFO; English-language articles published between 1990 and 2013 investigating the phenomenon of resistance to treatment in AN have been considered. DISCUSSION: The selected papers have been then grouped into four main thematic areas: denial of illness; motivation to change; maintaining factors and treatment outcome; and therapeutic relationship. Eating symptomatology was found to only partially explain resistance to treatment. The role of duration of illness has been questioned whilst some maintaining factors seemed promising in providing a useful framework for this phenomenon. Emotive and relational aspects have been investigated on their role in resistance as well as therapists' countertransference. SUMMARY: Remarkably there has been little research done on resistance to treatment in the ED field, in spite of its clinical relevance. Motivation, insight and subjective meaning of the illness can be useful tools to manage the resistance phenomenon when coupled with a wider approach. The latter enables the therapists to be aware of their role in the therapeutic alliance through countertransference aspects and to consider the EDs as disorders of the development of both personality and self, entailing severe impairments as regards identity and relationships.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.