The findings from this qualitative study provide a window into the perceptions, feelings, and roles of siblings of women afflicted with AN. An intervention guided by the elicited themes may facilitate family functioning that is more adaptive for both siblings.

This cross-sectional study compares the trends in incidence and hospitalization for eating disorders among children and adolescents 5 years before and in the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Support of family is paramount to reducing the impact of highly stressful work on firefighters. Yet the degree of stress encountered by the family members, particularly spouses, resulting from ongoing job demands and exposure to traumatic situations is unclear. This qualitative study examined the effects of emergency service work on spouses of firefighters. While participants were highly supportive and proud of their spouse's work, they nevertheless encountered several challenges. Specific areas of challenge were (a) the effects of shift work on family life, (b) the transfer of firefighters' reactions to dangerous and traumatic events to family, and (c) the social atmosphere associated with the fire service. Suggestions for the development of support services for firefighters and their families are offered.

Objectives: Eating disorders are common and serious conditions affecting up to 4% of the population. The mortality rate is high. Despite the seriousness and prevalence of eating disorders in children and adolescents, no Canadian practice guidelines exist to facilitate treatment decisions. This leaves clinicians without any guidance as to which treatment they should use. Our objective was to produce such a guideline. Methods: Using systematic review, the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) system, and the assembly of a panel of diverse stakeholders from across the country, we developed high quality treatment guidelines that are focused on interventions for children and adolescents with eating disorders. Results: Strong recommendations were supported specifically in favour of Family-Based Treatment, and more generally in terms of least intensive treatment environment. Weak recommendations in favour of Multi-Family Therapy, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Adolescent Focused Psychotherapy, adjunctive Yoga and atypical antipsychotics were confirmed. Conclusions: Several gaps for future work were identified including enhanced research efforts on new primary and adjunctive treatments in order to address severe eating disorders and complex co-morbidities.

Objective A growing body of evidence suggests that individuals with eating disorders (EDs) have experienced deteriorating symptoms, increased isolation, and an increase in hospital admissions as a result of the COVID‐19 pandemic. Despite this, no systematic reviews have been conducted examining the COVID‐19 and ED peer‐reviewed literature. Therefore, this systematic review aimed to synthesize the impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic on individuals with EDs. Method Database searches of the peer‐reviewed literature were completed in the subsequent databases: CINAHL, Embase, MEDLINE, and PsycINFO (from November 2019 to October 20, 2021). All research reporting on the relationship between the COVID‐19 pandemic on individuals with EDs were included. Results Fifty‐three studies met the inclusion criteria, including 36,485 individuals with EDs. The pooled hospital admissions across the studies demonstrated on average a 48% (pre = 591, post = 876, n = 10 studies) increase in admissions during the pandemic compared to previous pre‐pandemic timepoints. In this review, 36% of studies ( n = 19) documented increases in eating disorder symptoms during the pandemic, this increase in eating disorder symptoms were documented in AN, BED, BN, and OFSED patients. Studies also demonstrated increases in anxiety ( n = 9) and depression ( n = 8), however patterns of change appeared to be diagnostic and timing specific (e.g., lockdowns). Discussion We found a large increase in the number of hospitalizations and an increase in ED symptoms, anxiety, depression, and changes to BMI in ED patients during the pandemic. However, these changes appeared to be diagnostic and timing specific. Many qualitative studies described deterioration in ED symptomatology due to decreased access to care and treatment, changes to routine and loss of structure, negative influence of the media, and social isolation. Future studies are needed to focus on pediatric populations, new ED diagnoses, and severity of illness at presentation. Public Significance The scientific literature suggests that individuals with eating disorders have experienced deteriorating symptoms, increased isolation, and an increase in hospital admissions as a result of the COVID‐19 pandemic. This study synthesized 53 articles and explored the impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic on patients with eating disorders. We found increases in eating disorder symptoms during the pandemic; this increase in eating disorder symptoms was documented in patients with common eating disorders including anorexia nervosa, binge‐eating disorder, bulimia nervosa, and other specified feeding and eating disorders. This review also demonstrated changes in body mass index (an index used to classify underweight, overweight, and obesity in adults) and increas...

BackgroundFamily based treatment (FBT) has been empirically investigated in adolescents between the ages of 12 and 19 years of age. Although parental control over eating symptoms and the weight gain process are temporary and necessary due to serious medical complications, FBT may be developmentally inappropriate when working with older adolescents. To date, there are no studies identifying how the principles of this model are used differentially across different stages of adolescence. This study aimed to identify how clinicians informed by FBT employ this model with transition age youth (TAY) (16–21) with an eating disorder.MethodsUsing content analysis, seven individual interviews and six focus groups were conducted with 34 clinicians from specialized Eating Disorder Treatment programs across Ontario, Canada.ResultsParticipants consistently reported modifying FBT to increase its developmental appropriateness with TAY in the following ways: working more collaboratively with the patient, increasing individual time spent with the patient prior to the family meeting, providing greater opportunities for the individual to practice eating without parental support and introducing relapse prevention in the latter phase of the treatment.ConclusionsIn all adaptations of the model, participants in focus groups and individual interviews cited the age of the individual with the eating disorder, their level of autonomy and independence in all areas of their lives, and their pending transfer of care from paediatric to adult eating disorder programs as main factors that influenced the modification of FBT with TAY. While adaptations were made across all three phases of FBT, adherence to the model progressively declined over the course of treatment with adaptations increasing significantly in the later phases. Future research is needed to evaluate the effectiveness of an adapted version of FBT with TAY.

Abstract The coronavirus 2019 disease (COVID-19) pandemic has led to food shortages, increased food prices, and loss of income. As a result, global food insecurity alerts have been issued. The pandemic threatens millions of children and adolescents and their families currently living with or at risk for development of food insecurity. The lack of consistent access to nutritious food sources is associated with chronic physical and mental health problems and death. Studies on food insecurity and eating pathology have heightened our concern about the impact the added effect of the pandemic may have on eating behaviors of children and adolescents. Here, we want to draw attention to the need for making food security and healthy eating attitudes and behaviors a global priority during the COVID-19 pandemic to guarantee the current and future health and well-being of our children and adolescents.

The study's objective was to identify systemic facilitators and barriers of transferring young adults (ages 17-21) with eating disorders from pediatric to adult health and mental health services. Qualitative interviews were conducted and three themes emerged: (a) difficulties navigating care during the transfer period; (b) challenges achieving and maintaining recovery due to systemic barriers after the transfer of care;and (c) recommendations for facilitating the transfer between systems of care. From the perspective of young adults with eating disorders our study shows that the transition to adult care services may be improved with increased coordination, communication, and collaborative partnerships between pediatric and adult providers.