Pill Helps End Anorexics' Obsession

July 3 -- Yvonne's tortured mind used to be her biggest enemy. Her life revolved around the intense fear of gaining weight and the overwhelming desire to be thin.

The young Canadian woman survived solely on coffee and skim milk for days at a time. At this time last year, she was malnourished, dehydrated and doctors told her she was several pounds away from death.

"I remember saying to myself a few times, 'I don't need food,' " Yvonne said.

Between .5 and 1 percent of American women struggle with anorexia, and between 5 percent to 20 percent of individuals struggling with anorexia nervosa will die, according to the National Eating Disorders Association. Many have a story similar to Yvonne's.

Now, though, a cure may come in the form of a pill. Olanzapine, sold as Zyprexa in the United States, is currently used to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. But eating disorder researchers are also finding that it can rid the mind of obsessive fear of weight gain.

Terrified of Eating, Terrified of Help

According to a Canadian research team, results of a recent pilot controlled study of 15 patients have been encouraging, though doctors admit more studies are still needed.

"It makes the patients less resistant and easier to work with," said Dr. Wendy Spettigue of Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario. "That is very important when you have a patient that's coming in and terrified of eating and terrified of help and very angry and resistant."

"We found people that, in taking this medication, the fear is decreased enough that they can enter treatment and some of them are all better now, whereas we thought many of them would never get better," said Dr. Laird Birmingham of St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver, British Columbia. "So this is an amazing discovery."

Now enrolled in a day therapy program for those with eating disorders, Yvonne is gaining weight and her progress is promising.

"It got rid of 99.9 percent of the anorexic thoughts," Yvonne said. "It got rid of all my obsessive thoughts about all the problems that I had that caused the anorexia in the first place. I'm actually eating, for the first time in two years, three meals a day."