Johns Hopkins Eating Disorders Program — Eating disorder treatment center in Baltimore, MD

I am writing as a parent that struggled trying to help his daughter recover from an eating disorder. I am a medical professional, and I tried all the avenues over the last year to help my daughter. Virtual programs were failure experiences. With my access to medical experts, I was advised that the eating disorder program at Johns Hopkins is one of the best. Dr. Guarda and her team have made significant research and contributions to the eating disorder field nationwide. I talked to Dr. Guarda a few times and she was honest in her opinion. We waited for a bed to be available. I knew the discipline of the program would be difficult for my daughter, particularly the first few weeks. The program takes a multidisciplinary approach. The team listens but applies firm rules trying to change behaviors that have existed for years. You need to be ready as a parent to go through everything, slow progress, occasional daughter complaints and setbacks. During all, the team provided needed support. After three weeks, we started to see progress both in weight and the way our daughter talks about the issue of eating disorders. My daughter and us were determined to continue until she reached her goal of weight restoration. After 8 weeks, my daughter went to the day program where rehabilitation into normal activities is supported. My daughter now will resume her college studies and continue in an outpatient program. This program is highly credible and cares for the outcome and success of their patients. I am glad we stayed the course. I highly recommend this program for parents that are struggling to find the best care for an eating disorder of a loved one. It is a long process for recovery, but you would appreciate the expertise of the JH team

If you can, go somewhere else. I wish I could give no stars at all… This is all from experience in AND being a family member of a patient on this unit. Dr. Guarda does NOT listen to her patients. How she is practicing at this unit is beyond me, because they do what they want to, regardless of the patients’ requests, wishes, history, insight, lived experience, family consultations, everything. We told them specifically what happens when coming off a specific medication. We begged them to keep it on, because the patient has been off of it before, and it is dangerous mood-wise for someone with a personality disorder. They didn’t care about anything we said at all. Didn’t even ween off of it. Just stopped, which led to extreme depression. The patient was then reprimanded because of the consequences of STAFF’s actions. Guarda also promised a specialized group every Monday, and never even followed through with a single group, not even one. In the intake, she blatantly dismissed what we all were saying, and assumed that she knew everything about the patient’s symptoms because she read it in a text book. She literally said she doesn’t have an eating disorder because the onset of it was later than usual (patient has been in and out of ED treatment since pre-teenage years and has been repeatedly diagnosed with the same eating disorder at various hospitals—patient meets all criteria except for ONE thing). On the unit, patient was treated poorly, talked down to, ignored, denied medication that they needed, and made to feel like a nuisance rather than someone seeking help and support. Furthermore, they do not even touch the “mental” part of this MENTAL DISORDER. They re-feed, but that’s it. Groups are not in depth, barely scratch the surface of the issues these beautiful people are facing, and most of the time, patients are sitting in there doing nothing or playing jeopardy, not doing work on recovery. Came out worse than when I went in. Staff is rude and seems to play with their power and authority more than anything. Guarda is a danger to people trying to recover from an eating disorder. Never in a million years thought I’d say this, but Sheppard Pratt is way better.

I would prefer not to give this place any stars at all, but Dr Guarda (eating disorders) shared some interesting findings with me that she thought would not be helpful. Basically, I manipulated info out of her that stated there is no significant benefit to therapeutic interventions for people with a BMI under 20. And 21-22 is when she generally sees benefits. I was not able to comply with the treatment there and whatever they put me on, medicationwise, I could not sleep for over 2 years. Later, I found when my BMI hit 21, my brain fog went away, so she was indeed telling the truth about that. I would seriously be concerned over the medications prescribed because a study was published indicating Zyprexa was used off label to treat anorexia patients with a BMI of less than 16.5 and there was also a placebo group. I believe that is seriously unethical, as nobody knew they were on it (the consent process is not informative, and I would hardly consider someone w severe anorexia to be able to give consent). They do not study bulimia, but they do study appetite. Zyprexa is a failed antipsychotic that causes extreme weight gain in many people. We were also sharing the same ward as people with affective disorders, and I saw some patients given ECT when they did not want it. They consented because they were told it was going to be helpful. I saw what it did to them... I saw other reviews about how there is no tapering off medications they came in with, and that is very true. Protractive withdrawal is a real thing. I am unsure if I had a reaction to my medications being halted, but the next year and a half was terrible and have to consider the possibility. I write this review today because I learned about the Zyprexa study. But I did send Dr Guarda a thank you note several years ago for sharing research that helped me. I also learned a lot about ARFID there, which proved to me the same treatment is affective for all eating disorders including ARFID. Hence the 3 star review.

My teenage daughter was a patient at the ED Outpatient Clinic and eventually went to the Inpatient Clinic for approximately 6 weeks. Dr Guarda, Dr. Martinelli, Alli Pletch, ,and all of the doctors and nurses that we worked with were amazing. They recognized that she had dual diagnosis' and that the Eating Disorder co-existed with other conditions such as anxiety, ADHD etc. They were able to treat her for everything simultaneously. We are happy to say that she is fully weight restored and in a much better place. The Inpatient experience can be very hard on the patient and loved ones. There were many times where I questioned the very strict rules and high calorie intake requirements. I even thought about pulling her out of the program early at times. However, I am so grateful that we stuck with it and realize that Hopkins are the experts and know what is needed to successfully treat an ED, even if it's hard to see at the time. She has been discharged for 10 months and doing great. I am so thankful for the program and all of the doctors, nurses and staff. There were a lot of tears of joy on her discharge day and she looks forward to stopping in to visit the staff one day.

I have been coming to John Hopkins hospital inpatient and outpatient on and off since I was 3 months old starting in the neurology department. I have to say this was the second worst hospital experience I've ever had. When I went to this hospital for a Functional gastrointestinal disorder called Rumination Syndrome the first day was terrible and it just got worse as the days went on. I was supposed to stay 18 days and the nurses and some of the doctors made it impossible. If you have Rumination Syndrome I don't recommend going here. When I arrived the first day I told the nurses I was in pain and couldn't eat. Instead of them being understanding they made me sit as punishment for not being able to eat or drink anything for 2 hours in a chair staring at an ensure. What was then messed up was after I tried to eat a little something and got sick in a bucket the nurse made me dump the bucket in the toilet with the door open in front of the other patients. What then made the situation worse was the nurses and the doctors except 1 didn't believe I had Rumination Syndrome. The whole time I was there I felt invalidated. One of the nurses said oh you can control your regurgitating which made me feel like well if you think I can control it I'll just leave then. The nurses forced me to do things I wasn't comfortable with including drinking a whole cup of water after I told the nurses I'm going to regurgitate this up, eating spicy or foods that made it hard to swallow back down. I asked the nurses and doctors to give me foods that would make it easier to swallow back down. They didn't for some meals. I was having headaches while I was there and they weren't being understanding that I also had trouble eating because of that. The nurses rolled their eyes at me when I would sit there and get sick in my mouth. The cognitive behavioral therapist was a waste of time. She only came once to help me. I didn't even get to work with a dietitian 101. I'm home now and I haven't made any more progress. I also threw up because of stomach pain. I'm close to being underweight again. I'm still having a lot of trouble with new foods. They should have gotten me a dietitian the second day that I was there instead of wasting time, I should of tried different meals every single day to see which meals made my stomach issue worse and, which meals didn't make me as sick. If the doctors or nurses there really wanted me to get better with my stomach issue they should of done what I just mentioned. By now I probably would be more comfortable eating.

This is a nefarious and odious place for treatment of any kind but especially when it comes to eating disorders. I went in suffering from extreme gastrointestinal issues to begin with and they just made me suffer so much worse where I now require a tube at all times. The psychiatrists minus Dr. Redgrave were incompetent. I never even met with a nutritionist. Instead of doing 3 colossal meals a day, my personal GI who’s known me since childhood and other treatments have said the same which is to stretch it out over the day into 6-8. Yes I had an eating problem but not purposely at that point. Gastroparesis, is basically stomach paralysis, and never have I been anywhere as bad as John Hopkins. They refused to give me my medications so I went into withdrawal. Literally made me physically ill but they didn’t care. All they wanted was for me to make a calorie count. They took my personal items away from me like all my electronics so I couldn’t call for help. Then striped me off my clothing. The damage they did is irreversible. I still have nightmares. Dr. Guardia, your research is antiquated! Don’t call it an eating disorder program when it’s not and you refuse to do tubing on patients who need it.

I was at Hopkins a few years ago. Dr. Guarda and I’s first meeting consisted of her questioning my OCD diagnosis and not believing me. What followed was torture. I will admit that I didn’t always comply. But that is no excuse for what happened to me. I was placed in solitary confinement, staff members and patients alike weren’t permitted to talk to me. A fellow patient wrote a poem on my behalf in the group room for everyone to see protesting the treatment of me. My iPod was taken away at night so I couldn’t listen to music to go to sleep. I wasn’t allowed to play with my putty fidget. They prohibited me from going to groups to stay in solitary in the quiet room for a while. I was told by the “experts” that my parents were suffering and I wasn’t, and I was choosing this lifestyle of not eating. I had a nurse make fun of me for not being able to go outside. They didn’t believe anything I said and boxed me into a diagnosis that wasn’t accurate and I paid the price for that. It was so bad a friendly nurse told me to be friends with the white wall, since that’s the only thing I had left. I left Hopkins much sicker than I went in, and I’m grateful to other programs for repairing the damage they caused.

the treatment approach and rules were horrible the bathrooms were disgustingly dirty and the adults and children were mixed together and mind you they’re mentally ill, i felt unsafe. i lost things there and they threatened to take my personal belongings and “privileges” (one of the so called privileges being calling my own grandmother, i am a minor and had to wait two hours to call her and they said “i may not use my phone OR theirs to call her until i finish my food or it hits a certain time” i felt trapped, i have ptsd from hospital settings to begin with. most of the staff literally look and act like they don’t even want to be there and they don’t like their job the rules are insane I literally had to sit staring at a wall with no privileges because I was physically unable to finish my meal for up to EIGHT HOURS just sitting in front of the food, unable to read a book, color, call my family, nothing. Although SOME of the staff were very nice and I did learn a lot within my two days of being there but this type of treatment was not working for my specific needs and problems and I’m still very unsatisfied with the treatment and experience.

my daughter is 21 yrs old. she is dying from anorexia and binge purging. she has gone to treatment twice. she is right back to where she was before tx. although she was in iop their were too many rules . she was trying to work and drive 30mins to iop but they just couldnt be nice and expected her to have everything in order. this is a life time sentence if not a death sentence. not a tx sentence. at 12 she started restricting . but also a age 5. she just wants to die and doesnt seem to want recovery. she has no counsel. stop her meds and is just sleeping all day since her job loss. her big complaint with tx is their are too many rules and your too controlling. thus probably why when she leaves tx she fails. also after tx there was no after support. 5 days of iop plus 25 hrs of work left her isloated and alone. also no family support other than me her mom. she has her food and the rest is shut out. i do enable her.