A feasibility study of an add-on psychomotor body-image protocol during CBT-E in female patients with an eating...

Disturbed body image is a potential precursor and maintaining factor when it comes to eating disorders. One of the dominant treatment approaches for eating disorders, enhanced cognitive-behaviour therapy (CBT-E), includes the cognitive-affective body image dimension as a core treatment target. Adding a component that focuses on the lived body dimension, could improve body image. In the current study, the feasibility of a psychomotor body image treatment as an add-on to CBT-E was examined.

In this pilot study, 115 primarily female patients with different eating disorders in outpatient CBT-E treatment participated. They were asked to complete questionnaires examining body image before and after the psychomotor body image treatment.

Results showed good satisfaction with the treatment, and a significant improvement in body attitude and body satisfaction after the psychomotor body image treatment, with large effect sizes and clinical relevance. Results also showed that, overall, pre-treatment levels and changes over the course of treatment in body attitude and body satisfaction did not differ between patients within anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa or binge eating disorder diagnostic subgroups.

Limitations were lack of a control group, and the fact that the body image treatment was complementary to CBT-E. This means that it is unclear whether other factors contributed to the change in body image as shown in the current study.

These results indicate that an experiential psychomotor approach in addition to a more cognitive-behavioral approach is feasible, and warrants future research.