Eating disorders are serious conditions which also impact on pregnancy, birth and the health of mother and child. Amongst Norwegian women in the age group 15 to 44, 0.3 percent have anorexia, 2 percent bulimia and 3 percent have binge eating disorder. In this systematic review we summarise research on the effect of treatment and follow up of pregnancy for women with an eating disorders (anorexia, bulimia, binge eating or unspecified eating disorder).

We searched systematically for effectiveness studies. We found no studies where treatment interventions for pregnant women with eating disorder were evaluated.

We found a few studies on treatment of women with bulimia who had given birth. These studies did not include pregnant women and were not included in our review. None of the studies were of sufficient quality to yield reliable information about the effects of the offered treatments (cognitive therapy, web based group therapy or video-feedback intervention).

Surveying pregnant women with eating disorder without offering treatment, is ethically problematic. Controlled trials are needed to evaluate the effect of treatments for pregnant women with eating disorders. There are some treatments that show effect for some people with eating disorders, as cognitive therapy and family therapy. We do not know which treatments have best effect for mother and child in pregnancy with eating disorders.