Medizinische Universität Graz Austria/Österreich - Forschungsportal - Medical University of Graz
Gewählte Publikation:
Breyner, L.
CONCOMITANT OBSERVATION OF THE MULTICENTER THERAPY CONCEPT FOR ANOREXIA NERVOSA AND BULIMIA NERVOSA PATIENTS IN THE THERAPEUTIC INSTITUTION WEIDENHOF (CARINTHIA, AUSTRIA)
[ Diplomarbeit ] Medical University of Graz; 2011. pp. 86
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- Autor*innen der Med Uni Graz:
- Betreuer*innen:
- Scheer Peter
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- Abstract:
- In the course of collecting the information for this paper, I had the great opportunity to live and work at the therapeutic institution Weidenhof for about five weeks and many weekends. Staying at the Weidenhof, living there with fifteen to twenty patients, who are suffering from an eating disorder, and the staff, who is taking care of them, made it possible to get to know not only the patients and their everyday lives, their fears and hopes and the great interdisciplinary variety of therapies offered to the them at the facility, but also the whole staff, including the owners, the therapists, the carers, the riding instructor, the dancing master and many more. Participating in all the daily routines and therapies, I had the chance to take a close look at all aspects of the Weidenhof´s treatment approach for patients with anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa. In this paper, I am trying to critically reflect my experiences at the therapeutic institution Weidenhof and to exemplify the therapeutic methods used at the facility from a scientific point of view. Starting with a short introduction of eating disorders, their definitions, epidemiology, aetiology, clinical features, differential diagnosis, course and prognosis, I then describe the institution itself by providing some general information about the Weidenhof, the main staff and their ideology. After this, there are the daily and weekly routines and the therapy plan, followed by the concept of therapy and its subdomains that are further subdivided into background and definition of each domain, its execution at the Weidenhof, the staff´s view on the domain and my personal observations. Ensuing, the intertherapeutic cooperation in the multidisciplinary setting is discussed after which the EDI ¿ 2 results, the results of the Eating Disorder Inventory, a psychological questionnaire, used to describe the psychopathology of anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa patients, are listed. In the same chapter there are the case reports of seven female patients treated at the Weidenhof. In individual interviews, the girls talked about their history with an eating disorder, their lives at the Weidenhof and how those have changed since coming to the facility and their hopes and wishes for the future. The last chapter contains the discussion, including my personal overall observation at the institution, suggestions for improvement, staff interviews with the owner of the Weidenhof, and its founder and finally the therapy concept in scientific consideration, comparing the interdisciplinary setting with scientific statistical knowledge.