[The development of the German health system in regard to treatment of eating disorders].

The ongoing change in the German health care system challenges all those dealing scientifically with the treatment of eating disorders. The process of change provides an opportunity to rethink the entire range from outpatient treatment to intensive residential treatment of mental disorders. Improving trans-sectoral medical care for eating disorders could thereby play a leading role. The problem of unsatisfactory long-term courses in view of the high mortality in anorexia nervosa, cannot be met only by successful weight restitution but by an adaptive approach for long term maintainment of a healthy body weight.