Eating Disorder Clinic Takes New Approach

Marie has been struggling with starving herself while exercising excessively since her teens.

Now 21 years old and sicker than ever before, Marie, who didn't want to be identified by her full name, said she's hopeful a Swedish approach to treat anorexia brought to the Mandometer Clinic for Eating Disorders will be her doorway to normal eating.

Swedish scientist Cecilia Bergh used $250,000 from AB Mando, which is the Swedish parent company that Bergh founded in 1993, to open the first U.S. subsidiary, in Rancho Bernardo.

Bergh is the chief executive of AB Mando and its local unit.

Bergh helped develop the Mandometer, a computer program that teaches patients how to eat normally by tracking how much food and how quickly they eat.

The approach is a departure from traditional treatment methods, stressing psychotherapy and medications such as antidepressants.

Bergh says her clinic, which has eight employees, has achieved a 75 percent remission rate among its patients using the Mandometer, nutritional guidance and counseling.