No, I definitely favour evidenced-based treatment for eating disorders, and we lack a lot of evidence. So at this point, for example, there is no evidence whatsoever that there is any medication to treat children and adolescents with anorexia nervosa. Having said that, as I pointed out there is a very high association between eating disorders, depression, and anxiety, and there are medications that are helpful for treating depression and anxiety although they don't work in low-weight patients. We tell them that their food is the medicine they need to start with. We renourish them and then we can treat the depression and anxiety.
Having said that, it's the kind of patient Ms. Phoenix was talking about who is very ill in hospital. I specialize in treating the youth who are so medically unstable and unwell that they require hospitalization at CHEO. For those youth we sometimes get rather desperate in terms of trying to calm them when they become severely agitated or resistant to treatment and to taking nutrition, and they may be trying to kill themselves or to run away, or whatever. We sometimes end up desperately using medications that clinically seem to be helpful in calming their agitation. I'm trying to study a medication that was studied at the Ottawa General Hospital and found to be helpful in adults, but it's taking a long time and it's hard to get enough funding to study these adults and youth with eating disorders.