Research
Adherence
Orthorexia can be successfully treated with a combination of cognitive-behavioral therapy, psychoeducation, and medication (such as SSRIs or antipsychotics), managed by a multidisciplinary team.
If you are struggling with orthorexia, seek help from a team including a therapist, dietitian, and physician. Treatment typically involves CBT, education, and possibly medication. Be open to medications, even if you prefer 'natural' approaches, as they can be effective.
LimitedSupportsMEDIUM confidence
current best practices suggest that orthorexia can successfully be treated with a combination of cognitive-behavioral therapy, psychoeducation, and medication.
Why this rating
Based on 'best practices' and case studies, lacking large-scale clinical trials.
Source
The clinical basis of orthorexia nervosa: emerging perspectives
Nancy S. Koven et al. · Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment · 2015
DOI 10.2147/ndt.s61665
narrative_reviewCited 468×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Orthorexia nervosa is a pathological fixation on healthy food that leads to nutritional deficiencies, medical complications, and poor quality of life, distinguishable from anorexia by its motivation (health/purity vs. weight loss) and from OCD by its ego-syntonic nature.Moderate
- Orthorexia is independently associated with executive dysfunction, specifically deficits in set-shifting, external attention, and working memory, which overlap with but are distinct from anorexia and OCD profiles.Limited
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