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Science for Sapiens A year in research (2024)

rofessor of Psychology at the University
Miguel Hernández (UMH) of Elche Yo-
landa Quiles has been one of the people
responsible for carrying out the Spanish
adaptation of the innovative ECHOMAN-
TRA therapy. This therapy, born in London
(United Kingdom), is focused on patients
P with eating disorders and their families. Al-
though it is still in the research phase, it is starting to give
positive results.
Yaiza is a fifteen-year-old teenager, a young promise of
swimming and one of the pillars of her family. But one day
her knee was injured. At that time, COVID-19 was sprea-
ding around the world. Used to constant physical activity,
she was worried about putting on weight as she could not
practise so much sport. Therefore, she started a vegetarian
diet, ate less and less and increased physical exercise at
home. She began to lose a lot of weight, but she linked her
thinness to muscle atrophy in the injured leg. On the other
hand, her mother, María, felt guilty and uncertain about her
daughter’s situation. Also, about what the problem really
was.
After seeing different specialists, the Child and Adolescent It is currently under
Mental Health Unit diagnosed Yaiza of restrictive anorexia research and being
nervosa, according to the criteria of the Diagnostic and
Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V). The health applied as a comple-
staff proposed hospitalisation, but their parents opted for a mentary treatment to
day centre specialised in eating disorders. It was there that
the ECHOMANTRA project, a recent therapy based on inter- the usual therapy
vention in patients with eating disorders – such as anorexia
or bulimia – and also in their immediate family environment
which is giving good results, was launched.

This new therapy was born after the fusion of the ECHO To perform the therapy, mother and daughter have recei-
and MANTRA therapies at King’s College in London. Yo- ved a Patient and Caregiver Notebook. In this notebook,
landa Quiles, director of the Group for Research and Inter- divided into eight parts, one for each session, there are
vention on Eating Disorders at the University Miguel Her- exercises for reflection that Yaiza and María must work on
nández (UMH) in Elche, has been in charge of adapting the before each meeting. The main goals of this therapy are to
ECHOMANTRA programme to the Spanish population. It is make it easier for Yaiza to continue her treatment at home
currently under research and being applied as a comple- after attending the day centre and to teach her and her mo-
mentary treatment to the usual therapy. From the Centre ther to cope with the situations that anorexia nervosa can
for Emotional and Food Recovery (CREA Centre), a spin-off cause.
of the UMH led by professors María José Quiles and Yolan-
da Quiles, this therapy has been applied to about 80 fami- The ECHO treatment has sought to reduce behaviours or
lies. Yaiza and María, despite being pseudonyms, are a real comments that María could make and that, involuntarily,
example of one of these families. potentiate or provoke behaviours that maintain Yaiza’s pro-
blem. Psychologist Yolanda Quiles gives us the following
The eight sessions of treatment example: “Sometimes, patients ask questions related to
Once Yaiza entered the day centre, her case was proposed the calories of food, what makes them put on more weight
for the ECHOMANTRA programme. The project is based on and what less, etc. And family members, without realising,
helping relatives and patients who have an eating disorder. answer those questions. Sometimes, the simple fact of con-
Over the course of six months, mother and daughter have tinuing the conversation causes the disease to grow un-
held eight individual sessions with ECHO and MANTRA consciously. This is the way it is present. Then, throughout
contents. ECHO is the family-focused part of experienced the therapy parents are taught to detect those situations in
caregivers who help others. The MANTRA (Maudsley Mo- which, in a totally involuntary way, they give space to the
del of Anorexia Nervosa Treatment for Adults) is the part disease. Once they are aware of those actions, they are
related to patients. offered tools to act in a more appropriate way”.

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