Eating disorders are psychiatric illnesses with a high prevalence and mortality. However, currently, outpatient treatment is not adequately delivered and after some period from the start of treatment, many patients tend to receive inpatient treatment for renutrition. Inpatient treatment is effective in increasing body weight but if that is the only treatment target, relapse after discharge is highly likely. A more effective outpatient intervention and a closer link between inpatient and outpatient treatment is necessary.
 "Treatment in the community" is regarded as the basic principle in psychiatry today. It should also be the best treatment for eating disorders and, for that purpose, outpatient treatment should be the core of patient care. Unlike in inpatient treatment, doctors and medical staff at outpatient clinics cannot exert full control over the food intake and level of activity of patients. Thus, with outpatient treatment, patients themselves are expected to participate actively in the treatment.
 How best can patients, who often deny their illness, participate in their own treatment? Psychoeducation, in particular, learning the concept of externalization is the start. If a patient externalizes their anorexia or bulimia nervosa, it is easier for them to work together with the medical staff to fight the illness which is troubling them. A guided self-help approach should be acquired to monitor and control their pathological eating behaviour. Excessive exercise and activity should be controlled in a guided self-help method and the anxiety which occurs after stopping excessive activity should be discussed in order to examine the psychological background of the anxiety. A reduction of physical activity will be accepted by patients when there is a clear treatment plan at the beginning of the treatment. Building trust and planning treatment ahead of time is important.
 The importance of weight restoration and the reduction of other symptoms have been emphasized in the treatment of eating disorders. However, other aspects such as social participation and acquiring a job is also crucial to the process of recovery. Currently, the social and professional support for people with eating disorders to look for work and adapt to a work environment is much less sufficient than the support given to people with other psychiatric illnesses. In the case of eating disorder patients, it is left to their own personal motivation and effort. In addition to symptom reduction, outpatient treatment should include such elements as social skills training to enable them to look for employment and to help patients communicate and assert themselves at work. Updating the industrial doctors and staff with such knowledge may also be necessary.
 If eating disorders are treated early, before physical and mental conditions become complicated, these illnesses are manageable for general psychiatrists not just by specialists who are highly specialized in the field. In this way, we should be able to offer better treatment opportunities for patients.
 Author's abstract