LAS VEGAS – No evidence-based medications are approved for the treatment of avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder, but olanzapine is a sensible option to consider, according to Timothy D. Brewerton, MD.
Doug Brunk/MDedge News
Dr. Timothy D. Brewerton
A newly classified disorder in the DSM-5, avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID) is an eating/feeding disturbance manifested by the persistent failure to meet appropriate nutritional energy needs associated with one or more of the following factors: significant weight loss or failure to achieve expected growth, significant nutritional deficiency, dependence on enteral feeding or oral nutritional supplements to survive, and marked interference with psychosocial functioning. ARFID “is not better explained by lack of available food or by culturally sanctioned practices,” Dr. Brewerton, an affiliate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, said at an annual psychopharmacology update held by the Nevada Psychiatric Association. “It does not occur during the course of anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa, and there is no evidence of a disturbance in the way in which one’s body weight or shape is experienced. That’s what distinguishes it from anorexia nervosa.”
He added that, although many cases of ARFID have autism spectrum disorder traits, ARFID “is not attributable to a concurrent medical condition or to mental disorder.” When it does occur, the severity of the feeding disorder far outweighs that of the medical condition.”
Several ARFID case reports have been published in the medical literature, yet no randomized controlled trials exist to date. “Treatment is multidisciplinary and involves cognitive-behavioral therapy, sometimes occupational therapy,” said Dr. Brewerton, who is a founding fellow and former board member of the Academy for Eating Disorders.
He and his colleagues published a report on nine ARFID cases treated in an eating disorders program (J Child Adolesc Psychopharmacol. 2017;27[10]:920-2). The patients were treated with adjunctive olanzapine at a starting dose of 0.9 mg/day and discharge dose 2.8 mg/day. For the starting dose, “you have to break the [olanzapine pills] in pieces,” he said. “You have to have a pill cutter. What you don’t want to do is overwhelm the patient or their family members with oversedation. Too often, people start them with 2.5 mg or 5 mg [of olanzapine] right off the bat.”
“Patients also had improvements in their Clinical Global Impressions Scale scores and a reduction in their associated anxious, depressive, and cognitive symptoms,” Dr. Brewerton said.
Similar findings were observed in a subsequent Canadian study of six ARFID cases (J Eat Disord. 2018;6:20). Five females and one male were treated with a combination of medical monitoring, family therapy, medication (including olanzapine, fluoxetine and in two cases, cyproheptadine), and CBT. At treatment termination, all six patients had achieved their goal weight.
At the University of California, San Diego, researchers led by Emily Gray, MD, conducted a retrospective chart review of six females and eight males with ARFID who ranged in age from 7 to 23 years. All but one of the 14 patients had a co-occurring diagnosis, including general anxiety disorder, social anxiety, unspecified anxiety, ADHD, major depressive disorder, and autism spectrum disorder (J Am Acad Child Adoles Psychiatry. 2018;57[4]:288-9). They were treated with mirtazapine at a dosing range of 7.5-45 mg per day. The average change in BMI per week rose from 0.10 BMI points per week pretreatment to 0.23 BMI points per week post-treatment (P less than .05).
“These cases illustrate that the judicious use of low-dose olanzapine, when used as an adjunct to other treatment modalities, may facilitate eating, weight gain, and the reduction of anxious, depressive, and cognitive symptoms,” said Dr. Brewerton, who also has a private practice in Charleston.
Dr. Brewerton disclosed that he is a consultant to Monte Nido & Affiliates and Sunovion. He receives royalties from Taylor & Francis and Springer-Verlag, and holds ownership interest in Monte Nido & Affiliates.