Effective theories and hadronic bound states

Recent progress in the description of the properties of hadronic atoms on the basis of non-relativistic effective Lagrangian approach and Chiral Perturbation Theory (ChPT) is reported. For the case of the pi(+)pi(-) atom decay, the problem is completely solved, both conceptually and numerically. For the pi(-)p atom, a general expression for the ground-state energy is obtained in the first non-leading order in isospin breaking, and the numerical analysis is carried out at O(p^2) in ChPT. We briefly consider a possible solution of the "potential model puzzle" in the hadronic atom problem, providing a constructive algorithm for the derivation of the isospin-breaking part of the short-range hadronic potential from field theory.