The NHS is placing girls and young women with anorexia into comas and force-feeding them under a “draconian” treatment, The Telegraph can reveal.

Doctors are sedating and ventilating eating disorder patients in intensive care, sometimes for weeks, in a “last-resort” attempt to combat rising cases of extreme malnutrition.

Some NHS hospitals have sought court orders to enforce the treatment, with at least six patients understood to have been put under general anaesthesia in intensive care solely or primarily to feed them back to a healthier weight.

Medical experts and campaigners said they were dismayed at the revelations, pointing out such treatment is out of line with national and international best practices, which prioritise psychological therapy, medication, monitoring, and restraint without rendering patients unconscious.

As of Sunday a 20-year-old woman with anorexia and a BMI just over 11 has spent 19 days sedated and ventilated in intensive care without an “exit plan”, according to court filings. A healthy BMI ranges from 18.5 to 25. Doctors originally planned to keep her in a coma for another four to 11 weeks.