Anorexia and bulimia treatments are successful and cost effective

AUSTRALIANS with eating disorders only see half the recommended number of effective treatments, with experts saying suffers need double what Medicare provides.

AUSTRALIANS with eating disorders are only funded for half the number of treatments a new study shows are successful and cost-effective for treating the illnesses.

About 10 per cent of Australians will experience an eating disorder in their lifetime.

Anorexia nervosa has the highest mortality and suicide rate of any mental illness.

Deakin University research assessed two common psychological interventions for treating anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa in Australians aged 11-65.

About 10 per cent of Australians will experience an eating disorder in their lifetime. Picture: iStock

“We got two interventions that were effective in the Australian context: family-based behavioural therapy for anorexia nervosa and cognitive-behavioural therapy for bulimia and we found that both were very cost effective,” PhD candidate Long Le said.

Family-based therapy involves families attending ­therapy while cognitive-behavioural therapy is one-on-one and focuses on addressing thinking patterns and ­behaviour.

Mr Le took into account the cost of everything from training the practitioner, delivering the intervention, Medicare reimbursements, out-of-pocket costs and a common measure of disease burden known as disability-adjusted life years.

Co-author Professor Phillipa Hay, of Western Sydney University, said eating disorder treatments needed 20-30 ­sessions a year — double what Medicare provided.

Last year, federal Health Minister Greg Hunt asked the Medicare review taskforce to investigate increasing the number of funded therapies for eating disorders. The taskforce is expected to report to the government this year.

The papers were published in the International Journal of Eating Disorders.

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