[Psychoeducative ambulatory group in bulimia nervosa. Evaluation of a short-term approach]

This study examined the relative efficacy of a brief-psychoeducational treatment approaches for bulimia nervosa. Our sample comprised 26 women who sought consecutively treatment at the Eating Disorders Outpatient Unit. All subjects met DSM-IV criteria for Bulimia nervosa. For the assessment were used commonly applied questionnaires in the fiel of eating disorders such as: Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-40), Eating Disorders Inventory (EDI) and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). Outcome measures included also change in vomiting and binge-eating episodes per week. Each patient was assessed before and after a 6 weeks brief psychoeducational group therapy. At posttreatment, 30% of the patients were abstinent from binge eating-purging and 62% reduced their weekly frequency in binge eating and 56% reduced their weekly frequency in vomiting. Good-outcome (EAT scores < 30) was observed in more than 35% of our patients. The authors sought to identify factors that differentiate bulimic patients who improve while receiving treatment from those who do not.