CBT-E: A Qualitative Study

Lockwood, Serpell, & Waller (2012) conducted a study to examine the effectiveness of CBT-E on anorexia patients with different levels of illness severity and co-morbid disorders. They hypothesized that those individuals with greater severity of illness and co-morbid disorders would be more likely to drop out within the first ten sessions, and that an individual’s level of severity would correspond with how much weight they gain during that first ten sessions. Forty female participants were recruited to undergo weekly, one hours sessions of outpatient CBT-E treatment. The participants underwent psychology assessments prior to beginning the study, with 27 of the participants being diagnosed with the restrictive subtype and 12 being diagnosed with the …show more content…
Out the participants who remained in the study, those who reported higher levels of eating restraint and preoccupation with shape, as well as those who reported higher levels of anxiety, gained weight at significantly slower rates over the course of the treatment than those who reported lower levels of these concerns. This study demonstrates that individuals with greater levels of anxiety and more severe eating attitudes may need a greater amount of attention during the beginning of CBT-E in order to alter the processes maintaining the disorder more effectively. In addition, the average weight gain for participants during the first ten sessions was 2.21 kg. The researchers determined that if these participants continue with CBT-E treatment for a total of 40 sessions, and that their weight continues to change at an identical rate, that the participants could gain enough weight to achieve a healthy BMI. This demonstrates support for the effectiveness of CBT-E for anorexia patients (Lockwood, Serpell, & Waller,