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New psychotherapy effective for eating disorders
Washington:
A new form of psychotherapy has been shown to
have the potential to treat more than eight out of
ten cases of eating disorders in adults, according
to a new study. This new "enhanced" form of cognitive
behavioural therapy (CBT-E), developed by researchers
at Wellcome Trust, builds on and improves the current
leading treatment for bulimia nervosa as recommended
by the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence
(NICE). CBT-E is the first treatment to be shown to
be suitable for the majority of cases of eating disorders.
According to NICE, eating disorders are a major cause
of physical and psychosocial impairment in young women,
affecting at least one in twenty women between the
ages of 18 and 30. They also occur in young men but
are less common. Three eating disorders are recognised:
anorexia nervosa, which accounts for around one in
ten cases in adults; bulimia nervosa, which accounts
for a third of all cases; and the remainder are classed
as "atypical eating disorders, which account for over
half of all cases. In these atypical cases the features
of anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa are combined
in a different way. The three eating disorders vary
in their severity, but typically involve extreme and
relentless dieting, self-induced vomiting or laxative
misuse, binge eating, driven exercising and in some
cases marked weight loss. Common associated features
are depression, social withdrawal, perfectionism and
low self-esteem. The disorders tend to run a chronic
course and are notoriously difficult to treat. Relapse
is common. This new treatment derives from an earlier
form of CBT that was designed exclusively for patients
with bulimia nervosa. Both were developed by Professor
Christopher Fairburn, a Wellcome Trust Principal Research
Fellow at the University of Oxford. In 2004, the earlier
treatment became the first psychotherapy to be recognised
by NICE as the leading treatment for a clinical condition
and its use was recommended across the NHS. Now, in
a new study, Professor Fairburn and colleagues have
shown that the enhanced version of the treatment is
not only more potent than the earlier NICE-recommended
treatment, but it can also be used to treat both bulimia
nervosa and the atypical eating disorders, making
it suitable for over 80 percent of cases of eating
disorders. "Eating disorders are serious mental health
problems and can be very distressing for both patients
and their families. Now for the first time, we have
a single treatment which can be effective at treating
the majority of cases without the need for patients
to be admitted into hospital," said Professor Fairburn.
The study is published in the American Journal of
Psychiatry.
-Dec
15, 2008
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