No effect of adjunctive fluoxetine on eating behavior or weight phobia during the inpatient treatment of anorexia nervosa: an historical case-control study.

A six-week open label clinical trial investigated the response to fluoxetine in adolescents hospitalized for treatment of anorexia nervosa. Patients were drawn from consecutive admissions to a specialty treatment service and received fluxoetine as an add-on to their multidisciplinary treatment regimen beginning three weeks to one month postintake. Global clinical severity ratings of eating behavior and weight phobia were obtained at baseline and then at biweekly intervals. These ratings were compared to those obtained from matched historical case-controls who received an identical course of inpatient therapy but without adjunctive pharmacotherapy. Analyses failed to show any beneficial or detrimental effect of fluoxetine on these clinical measures. We conclude that fluoxetine has no robust additive or synergistic therapeutic benefit when measured against the effects of intensive, multidisciplinary inpatient therapy.