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Updated: May 30, 2026

A Treatment Package without Escape Extinction to Address Food Selectivity
Published on: August 21, 2015
Motivation-focused treatment for eating disorders: a sequential trial of enhanced cognitive behaviour therapy with
Karina L Allen1, Anthea Fursland, Bronwyn Raykos
1Centre for Clinical Interventions, Northbridge, Western Australia, Australia. karina.allen@uwa.edu.au
Objective:
To evaluate the effectiveness of a motivation-focused intervention prior to individual cognitive behavioural eating disorder treatment.
Method:
Enhanced cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT-E) in its usual form was compared with CBT-E preceded by four sessions of motivation-focused therapy (MFT) (MFT + CBT-E). Participants were adult outpatients seen at a specialist eating disorder clinic in Western Australia, who met criteria for a Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition eating disorder. A sequential trial of CBT-E as usual (n = 43) and MFT + CBT-E (n = 52) was conducted over a 40-month period.
Results:
The MFT phase was associated with significant increases in readiness to change. There were no significant between-group differences in treatment completion rates, and treatment completers in both conditions reported comparable reductions in eating disorder symptoms over time.
Conclusion:
In this sample, MFT + CBT-E was not associated with superior treatment outcome when compared with CBT-E as usual.
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