Educational Media Reviews Online

This Australian production provides an introduction to the dramatic new approach to treating eating disorders pioneered at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. Two physicians at the Institute are claiming a 75% success rate within the first year of treatment with 90% of those patients continuing on with a healthy lifestyle for at least 5 years. Instead of looking at eating disorder patients from the long-standing Freudian viewpoint of finding and treating an underlying psychological cause, the Stockholm theory states that the obsessive behaviors associated with eating disorders start and become out of control due to a lack of proper nutrition. Primarily started by dieting and exercising to lose a few pounds, the subsequent poor nutrition and excessive exercise causes the often bizarre eating habits to develop.

The program patients enter at the Institute closely monitors their nutrient intake and they slowly progress to a healthier state. While this revolutionary method is resulting in a high success rate and the founders have invited scientists and researchers all over the world to test their theory with good scientific studies, no one is proving or disproving their results. The Stockholm Solution follows three young women and their families as they enter the program. Through their experiences we learn the differences between traditional therapies for treating eating disorders and this new Karolinska theory.

The film’s producers are to be commended for bringing this information to the public and Films for the Humanities and Sciences for marketing it. However, it stops short from being a very good piece. The news program format is familiar, and works, but it doesn’t lend itself to identifying personally with the young women profiled, which would create a much stronger impact. The steps to rehabilitation are repeated several times, as are the reasons the two founders came up with their theory. More depth about what is involved and less repetition would also help to strengthen the production. Also, titles for the medical professionals and family members would be helpful. Since the content is so revolutionary it should be seen, even if the delivery is lackluster. It will be useful for health sciences courses, but its use in the university level classroom is limited because of its brief, beginning level content. It will make a good supplemental addition to community college and introductory health sciences library collections.