A community intensive therapy team (CITT) for young people with complex mental health problems was developed in South Wales in 1998 (Reference Darwish, Salmon and AhujaDarwish et al, 2006). We report here a small study of 30 service users (27 female, 3 male) with anorexia nervosa, referred to CITT over a 4-year period.

Mean age at referral was 14.56 years (14.4 for females, 15.67 for males; range 12-17 years); body mass index (BMI) at referral ranged from 13.1 to 18.0 (mean= 15.52). A mean discharge BMI of 19.3 was recorded following an average period of treatment of 16.7 months for females and 10 months for males. The duration of out-patient care provided by CITT ranged from 5 months to 3.5 years for 16 patients, with the remaining 14 patients receiving ongoing intervention. During the 4-year study period no service users were admitted to hospital.