The patient experience of illness, treatment, and change, during intensive community treatment for severe anorexia nervosa

This study explores experiences of intensive community treatment, illness, and change among patients with severe anorexia nervosa (sAN), particularly seeking to understand the processes involved in change and inability to change. A qualitative design with purposive semi-stratified sampling, using semi-structured interviews and interpretive phenomenological analysis, investigated in detail the experiences of five participants. Participants all had sAN at the start of treatment and represented a spectrum of outcomes from deterioration to full recovery. Six super-ordinate themes emerged from the analysis: treatment experience, function of anorexia, self-criticism versus self-acceptance, isolation versus connection, hopelessness versus hope, and stuckness versus change. Results describe the valued function of the illness, barriers to change, the lengthy struggle for change, and how this can be supported by intensive community-based treatment. Necessary ingredients in the process of change, arising from the analysis, are proposed. We conclude that the experiences of these patients reflect the particular functions of AN for each individual, and that both clinical deterioration and full recovery can occur with prolonged intensive community treatment.