Introduction to Outcome

This section concerns the outcomes of eating disorders. Readers will note that outcomes of anorexia nervosa by Elisabet Wentz presents a positive trend regarding premature mortality in anorexia nervosa. This is encouraging because it may indicate that our treatment approaches are becoming more effective in this regard, despite no “front runner” for treatment in this area emerging (Solmi et al., 2021). Importantly, this chapter challenges us to do better in our treatment for anorexia nervosa. As may be expected due to increased illness severity and acuity, long-term outcome is worse for inpatients, with full remission of an eating disorder in only one-third, while two-third of outpatient and community-based samples achieve recovery.