Background: Anorexia nervosa is one of the most serious and life-threatening psychiatric conditions. There are several different treatments and the condition often seem to affect the whole family. Family intervention is a common intervention in anorexia nervosa. The intervention in family treatment is often provided by nurses as part of nursing in psychiatric care.

Aim: The aim was to evaluate various family interventions for weight recovery in anorexia nervosa in adolescents in psychiatric care.

Method: A systematic database search and review of eight research studies have been made step by step based on the method described by BettanySaltikov and McSherry (2016).

Results: All eight studies were performed in outpatient care. In the largest study, 169 participants participated and 45 in the smallest study. The average age was 15,6 years. There was no significant difference between the different family treatment methods at short-term follow-up (one to three months) but at the six-month follow-up there was a significant difference in two of the studies where PFT and ECHO proved to be most effective. In another study, there was a significant difference at twelve-month follow-up where E@T proved to be most effective.

Discussion: Family interventions have a positive effect on weight recovery in anorexia, However, the intervention adds relatively little extra weight compared to conventional care. More health science research is needed that evaluates family-focused nursing interventions.