[The long-term prognosis of anorexia nervosa: the evaluation of hospital treatment].

The present study is the continuation of a previous programme performed by a mail or phone questionnaire. In this study 18 subjects with anorexia nervosa were submitted to a clinical semi-structured interview, and underwent a medical examination regarding eating habits and Rorschach tests. Clinical results seemed to be quite satisfactory (none died and 84% were greatly improved or had recovered clinically) whereas the psychopathologic aspects were less positive. The authors conclude that complete clinical evaluation can be considered the only safe approach for the understanding of the clinical course.