Families of anorexic patients who were once held responsible for adolescents succumbing to the dangerous eating disorder are becoming increasingly incorporated in the solution.

In the strongest evidence till date to recommend that families should be involved in treatment, a 121-patient study published on Monday found that a therapy in which parents stay present at every meal till an anorexic child eats looks to be more effective in fostering recovery than when a child works solely with a therapist.

Daniel Le Grange, one of the authors of the study and director of the Eating Disorders Porgram at the University of Chicago said the Maudsley model-developed at the Maudsley Hospital in London more than 20 years ago calls for parents to take on the responsibility of feeding a severely underweight child making it impossible not to eat.

B. Timothy Walsh, an eating-disorder researcher and professor of psychiatry at the New York State Psychiatric Institute, Columbia University Medical Center, who wasn't involved with the study said, “This is additional evidence that involvement of the family can be a very effective way in helping kids overcome their problems.”