Blinded by body concerns: the role of meaning in life in eating disorders

Eating disorders are severe mental disorders that have a great impact on psychological well-being and physical health (Van Hoeken & Hoek, 2020). Unfortunately, many individuals with eating disorders do not improve during treatment or relapse after successful treatment (Berends et al., 2018). Therefore, it is important to broaden our knowledge of the factors that are relevant in the development and maintenance of eating disorders, in order to promote the development of more effective treatment interventions. Sanne van Doornik’s research shows that adolescents with anorexia nervosa experience lower levels of meaning in life than adolescents without eating disorders and that this reduced meaning in life plays an important role in the maintenance of eating disorder symptoms. Therefore, 'meaning-centered psychotherapy for individuals with an eating disorder (MCP-ED)’ was developed. Van Doornik’s research shows that MCP-ED is an effective intervention to increase meaning in life and reduce eating disorder symptoms, and therefore can be considered as an important add-on intervention to the treatment of eating disorders.