Brief Group Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Non-Underweight Eating Disorders: Feasibility and Preliminary...

Area of Science:

• Psychiatry
• Clinical Psychology
• Behavioral Science

Background:

• Individually delivered cognitive-behavioral therapy for eating disorders (CBT-T) is effective.
• Group CBT-T has shown feasibility and potential effectiveness in pilot studies.
• This study expands on previous research by assessing group CBT-T in a larger adult sample.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the effectiveness and feasibility of group CBT-T for non-underweight eating disorders.
• To examine treatment outcomes including eating disorder psychopathology, depression, anxiety, and binge eating.
• To assess the predictive value of early treatment changes on overall outcomes.

Main Methods:

• Utilized intention-to-treat (ITT) analyses with generalized linear mixed models.
• Examined changes in eating disorder psychopathology, depression, anxiety, and objective binge eating.
• Assessed recovery, reliable improvement, clinically significant change, and early response predictors.

Main Results:

• Significant reductions in eating disorder psychopathology, depression, anxiety, and binge eating were observed.
• Sustained improvements were noted at 3-month follow-up with medium to very large effect sizes.
• Over 70% of completers achieved recovery, with over half showing reliable and clinically significant change.

Conclusions:

• Group CBT-T is effective for non-underweight eating disorders, reducing psychopathology and binge eating while improving mood.
• Early changes in treatment by session 4 predicted greater overall improvement.
• Group CBT-T shows promise for increasing access to evidence-based eating disorder treatments.