[Supporting carers of persons suffering from an eating disorder].

The purpose of this article is to describe the background and procedure of a skills training program provided for carers of patients suffering from anorexia or bulimia nervosa. Caring for someone suffering from an eating disorder is associated with psychological distress and may lead to unhelpful interactive behaviours that maintain the illness. Recent investigations in supporting carers, especially skills sharing workshops that target interpersonal maintaining factors are described. A 5-session training concept in teaching basic skills and information about eating disorders to carers in order to improve caregiving burden and reduce interpersonal maintaining factors like expressed emotions (EE) is currently examined in our department. Design and content will be described in detail. Carers' and sufferers' perceptions of the impact of the sessions and acceptance of the provided skills training are reported.