Day Care for Eating Disorders

Over the last decades, clinical practice in eating disorders (ED) has shifted toward individualized treatment settings with varying intensities and stepped-care approaches. Within this line of development, day patient (DP) treatment programs have evolved and found to be effective in treating ED. However, study results vary, and very few high-quality randomized and controlled studies have been performed comparing DP treatment to other well-established treatment programs. The aim of this chapter is to provide an overview of DP treatment programs in EDs and the recent developments of applying this treatment method within different age groups, particularly focusing on anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. The chapter will provide a detailed summary on the evidence of the effectiveness of DP treatment in ED, while separately presenting an overview of the results of observational and randomized-controlled trials (RCTs). Furthermore, the indication for DP treatment will be addressed. Management, schedules, and concepts of DP will be described in more detail, and the current knowledge of the clinical safety will be presented. Also, the potential role of online DP treatment for ED will be considered. To summarize, this chapter shows that DP treatment programs have been established as a valid and important treatment alternative for children, adolescents, and adults suffering from ED. However, the dearth of high-quality RCTs hampers a thorough comparison of the effectiveness of different treatment settings for patients with ED.