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December 20, 2008
Some people with eating disorders may benefit from talking therapies, research suggests
On its website, BBC News (12/15) reports that, according to study published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, "people with eating disorders could benefit from 'talking therapies' which aim to release them from obsessive feelings," and "a specially-created form of 'cognitive behavioral therapy' might work in four out of five cases."
For the study, researchers from the University of Oxford "focused on" 154 "bulimia and 'atypical' patients, but excluded those with anorexia." The team "developed two versions" of counseling sessions "specifically for people with eating disorders, one which focused completely on the eating problems, and another, which took a wider view of not only the eating disorder, but also problems with self-esteem which might be contributing to it. Both treatments involved 50-minute outpatient sessions repeated once a week for 20 weeks." The authors said that "two-thirds" of the participants "made a 'complete and lasting' response, with many of the other third showing substantial improvement."
Posted by admin at December 20, 2008 02:59 PM