‘Float therapy’ Has Potential For Treating Anorexia Nervosa

Anorexia nervosa (AN), an eating disease characterized by low body weight, abnormalities in body image, and anxiety, has made tremendous progress thanks to a ground-breaking study undertaken by researchers at the Laureate Institute for Brain Research (LIBR) in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The study, “The impact of floatation therapy on body image and anxiety in anorexia nervosa: a randomized clinical efficacy trial,” appears in eClinicalMedicine.

In patients with anorexia nervosa, the researchers found that floatation-REST (Reduced Environmental Stimulation Therapy) had a number of immediate and long-lasting effects. The general public is using floatation-REST, also referred to as “float therapy,” more frequently as a stress-reduction technique. It involves floating effortlessly in a small, warm pool of water that has been saturated with Epsom salts in a light-, sound-, humidity-, and temperature-controlled environment.

In comparison to a control group of anorexia nervosa inpatients who were randomized to receive care as usual and whose symptoms remained the same, the study’s anorexia nervosa inpatients who received floatation-REST reported immediate and repeated reductions in body image dissatisfaction and improved anxiety. Additionally, the floatation-REST group’s benefits in body image persisted for up to six months following the treatment.

“This breakthrough offers a new therapeutic direction in treating anorexia nervosa, a psychiatric disorder known for its challenging prognosis and high mortality rate,” said psychiatrist Sahib Khalsa, MD, Ph.D., Director of Clinical Operations at LIBR, and senior author of the study.

“Anxiety is a common co-occurrence in anorexia nervosa that does not respond well to standard anxiolytic medications such as benzodiazepines,” he added. The large anxiety reductions induced by float therapy in these patients suggest that this tool presents a potent opportunity to treat anxiety via non-pharmacological means in anorexia nervosa. Additional research is needed to examine the anxiolytic effects of float therapy in other eating disorders.”

“These findings also make way for new forms of treatment for eating disorders which, in conjunction with traditional treatments, may help to alleviate diagnostic features of AN that are more difficult to treat, such as body image,” commented co-first author Emily Choquette, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist and postdoctoral scholar at LIBR. “The reliable and sustained effect of floatation-REST on body image dissatisfaction suggests that it may be studied as a tool to augment the effectiveness of traditional psychotherapies.”

The search for efficient treatments is ongoing since anorexia nervosa is a serious and enduring psychiatric illness. “This study underscores the importance of continually seeking innovative approaches and broadening the horizons of existing therapeutic options,” added Dr. Scott Moseman, MD, CEDS, Medical Director of the Laureate Eating Disorders Program. “These findings may pave the way for new forms of treatment, such as float-assisted psychotherapy, which aim to further enhance the body image and anxiety improvements obtained via existing evidence-based interventions.”

The study was conducted in close cooperation with psychiatrist Scott Moseman, MD, CEDS, Medical Director of the Laureate Eating Disorders Program from which the participants were recruited, and was led by senior author Sahib Khalsa, MD, Ph.D., Director of Clinical Operations at the Laureate Institute for Brain Research, Director of the LIBR Float Clinic and Research Center, and Associate Professor in the Oxley College of Health Sciences at The University of Tulsa.

Emily Choquette, a Ph.D., a post-doctoral research associate at LIBR, and Michael Flux, a Ph.D., a former lab volunteer and associate at LIBR, served as co-first authors on the paper. Clinical neuropsychologist Justin Feinstein, Ph.D., President and Director of the nonprofit Float Research Collective, was one more collaborator.

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