Utilité d'un carnet de suivi quotidien dans la thérapie de l'anorexie mentale

The therapeutic utility of a daily notebook evaluation for hospitalised adolescent girls suffering from anorexia nervosa is illustrated through two case studies. In the context of a larger study, anorexic girls were asked to complete daily and for 140 consecutive days, a daily notebook comprising a quantitative part (i.e., self-ratings on 13 visual analog scale items measuring self-esteem and anorexic symptoms) and a qualitative part (i.e., a written comments section entitled Events which affected me today). The first case study will be used to illustrate the clinical interpretation of the quantitative time-series results and their associations with the qualitative results. The second case study will serve to illustrate the clinical usefulness of this methodology in the context of a semi-directive interview with a clinical psychiatrist. These two studies show the clinical utility of the daily notebooks as intimate journals and as therapeutic tools.