Cure for compulsive starvation?

Press, 2 September 1980, Page 16

Cure for compulsive starvation?

NZPA ■■ London •Remarkable cures for . people -suffering from ano« rexia nervosa com-; pulsive starvation — are reported by a Hampshire doctor using methods in which religious faith plays a significant part. _ ; . Anorexia - nervosa'. ; is common among girls, affecting, about one in 100 who' stay at school after 16. But it seldom occurs among boys. ' . . Although the cause is not fully understood it is often" Thought, to • result from a rejection of adulthood /caused by unresolved emotional problems involving other family problems, writes “Sunday Times” medical . correspondent, Oliver Gillie. It is difficult to treat, but Dr Robert McAll found that in 15 cases which he handled a member of the family had died

without being properly mourned. As soon as the sufferer was persuaded to take-part in a. church service of mourning she began to improve, sometimes dramatically: Dr McAll, a 70-year-old former surgeon and missionary in China, reports, his findings in a letter to jthe. “Lancet”. -He suggests ’that “hidden guilt/ ieitjier in the patient dr a' close .member of the family, may be a causative factor.”

If a “means of repentance,” is provided it can lead to dramatic relief, “in addition to the emotional release experienced " by other involved members of the family.” One of his patients, a girl, had spent months in hospital after a car accident at the age of 11. Only when, she was discharged was she told: that her

father had been killed in the same accident. No member of the family had attended, his funeral. The girl immediately began to refuse food. By the age of 18 she weighed five stone and hospital treatment had achieved nothing.

Dr McAll arranged for a priest - to. hold a church ■- service for her father, which the girl , attended ' with her mother. The following day the girl started,’ to eat normally. > Dr McAll says: “This girl was saying she loved her. daddy and was going, to join him. '■ Not eating was a polite form of suicide. Her father’s spirit was haunting her.’! , A second case described by Dr McAll was of an engineer aged 44, who had. suffered from anorexia nervosa since the ago of 22. Questioning by Dr

McAll revealed . that he had persuaded his/wife’ to have an abortion before they were married. ' / “When this emerged he burst into tears and wept and wept. He had never faced it. I suggested that he apologise to God for ■ the . death of the ■ child,: ' which he did. He went ■through .a • process; of mourning ■ and: committal of the child. After that he ■ ceased ' 'to fbe . depressed arid began to eat normal* ly.” '

Dr McAll has used the same method to treat peole suffering from schizophrenia, depression, phobia and other forms of mental illness. /

He always starts by inquiring into The families of his patients and discussing each relative in turn.

He now says he has . helped or -healed 1400

families who had not mourned a relative and another 500 families who developed problems ‘ following an abortion or miscarriage that was not recognised emotionally or spiritually.