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Science for Sapiens A year in research (2024)

The therapy has also sought to increase María’s confiden- Yolanda Quiles,
ce in herself and her decisions regarding the care of her
daughter. Another objective of this part of the intervention who has been in charge
has been to reduce the emotional overinvolvement of fami- of adapting the ECHO-
ly members and the impact that the disease can have on
them. For example, María, at the beginning of the therapy, MANTRA programme to
did not understand what was happening to her daughter,
it affected her very much to see her daughter irritable or the Spanish population:
avoiding eating with them. And during the therapy she un- “Throughout the
derstood that it was not a problem that she had caused or
that her daughter did not want to be with her, but that she therapy parents are tau-
was sick. ght to detect those situa-

The patient-focused part of the MANTRA has been centred tions in which, in a totally
on motivating her to change her behaviour to one that is involuntary way, they give
healthy for herself. At the same time, it has sought to reduce
the possibility of relapses to improve Yaiza’s quality of life. space to the disease”
In addition, this part of the treatment attempts to reduce
Yaiza’s perfectionist behaviours. This last aspect is a perso-
nality trait that, according to Quiles, is a risk factor in terms
of eating disorders. A person with anorexia or bulimia can
be very self-demanding. One of the goals of this part of the programme, this characteristic has been measured with
MANTRA therapy is to provide Yaiza with sufficient tools to the Perfectionism Scale in Children and Adolescents. Thus,
make decisions and solve problems on her own. it can be quantified how much Yaiza imposes on herself,
what she believes others expect from her and what she ex-
The treatment results have shown the efficacy of ECHO- pects from others. According to this scale, Yaiza has increa-
MANTRA for patients and their families. All aspects that sed her levels of perfectionism, that is, after ECHOMANTRA
have been sought to improve throughout the therapy have she is even more self-demanding than before. Despite this
been evaluated with questionnaires, which have been fi- aspect, the therapy has improved the quality of life of the
lled in by mother and daughter since their admission to young woman: Yaiza has gone from severe to moderate le-
ECHOMANTRA, as well as with their follow-up by the pro- vels of depression and anxiety.
fessionals who assist them.
ECHO’s results are also positive. For example, María no
Back to routine after treatment longer lets her daughter eat alone. At the beginning of the
The results show positive and sustained progress throu- illness, the young woman asked to eat alone “because the
ghout the process. For example, Yaiza no longer overexer- noise you make eating bothers me” or “because I don’t like
cises three days a week, but one. Her body mass index, you seeing me eat”. However, despite not doing so with
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despite not reaching the recommended 18.5 kg/m , has malicious intent, as Quiles explains, “Yaiza was staying alo-
increased from 14.50 kg/ m to 16.90 kg/m , indicating po- ne with her illness”, and avoiding that is imperative. After ei-
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sitive progress. In addition, it has been achieved that the ght months of ECHOMANTRA, María is more self-confident
patient increased her motivation to change. That is, the when making decisions related to the care of her daughter.
change toward her improvement was voluntary and acti- Another improvement has been the critical attitude toward
ve on her part. This change of attitude has been evaluated her daughter’s behaviours and her emotional involvement.
with two questions: To what extent is it important for you to That is, the situation her daughter is in affects her less than
change? How much confidence do you have in your ability before and feels less anxiety.
to change? The answers to these questions, with a score
out of 10, have improved after the intervention compared After the therapy and subsequent follow-up, the evaluation
to the beginnings. In fact, all the parameters evaluated shows an improvement in María and her daughter. In fact,
show improvements, except her perfectionism. the patient is out of danger. But, as highlighted by the head
of the project in Spain, Yolanda Quiles, this therapy is com-
The director of the CREA Centre, Yolanda Quiles, explains plementary to the usual and traditional sessions. In fact,
that perfectionism is a risk factor depending on how it is she defines it as “a complementary pack that improves the
oriented. “The problem is when we orient it toward unattai- traditional treatment.”
nable goals that go against our health”, explains the profes-
sor of psychology at the UMH, “There are many people who Although Yaiza and María are pseudonyms, this is a real
are very perfectionist and that is not why they develop an case. The study, originally from London, was adapted to
eating disorder”, she adds. the Spanish population by the University Miguel Hernán-
dez, together with the CREA Centre, the Unit for Eating Di-
Perfectionism implies that people impose on themsel- sorders of the Hospital of Sant Joan d’Alacant and the As-
ves high levels of performance, together with a constant sociation in Defence of Attention to Anorexia Nervosa and
self-criticism of their own behaviours. In the ECHOMANTRA Bulimia (ADANER).

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