Clinical Trial: Rapid Response to Day Hospital Treatment in Bulimia Nervosa and Purging Disorder

Study Status: Completed
Recruit Status: Completed
Study Type: Interventional




Official Title: Rapid Response to Day Hospital Treatment in Bulimia Nervosa and Purging Disorder: A Randomized Controlled Trial of an Intervention to Facilitate Early Symptom Change

Brief Summary: Treatments for bulimia nervosa (BN) have relatively high rates of nonremission and relapse, meaning that improving treatments is a high priority in this area. Rapid response to treatment -cessation of binge eating and vomiting symptoms within the first weeks of treatment - is a robust predictor of improved post-treatment outcomes and lower relapse rates, but no study has tried to facilitate rapid response as a means of improving treatment outcomes. The present study responds to this gap in the literature by testing a 4-session CBT-based individual intervention for rapid response (i.e., "CBT-RR"), designed to augment standard day hospital (DH) treatment for BN and Purging Disorder (PD) by focusing on strategies and skills for rapid symptom interruption. CBT-RR will be compared to a matched-intensity augmentative motivational interviewing (MI) intervention. Participants will be recruited from a hospital-based day program for eating disorders, and will be randomly assigned to one of the two conditions in addition to the DH as usual. participants will be assessed at pre-intervention, post-intervention, week 4 of DH, post-DH, and 6 months follow-up. It is hypothesized that compared to those who receive MI, patients who receive CBT-RR will be more likely to exhibit a rapid response to day hospital treatment (i.e., </= 3 binge eating and/or vomiting episodes in the first 4 weeks). It is further hypothesized that patients who receive CBT-RR will exhibit fewer binge eating and/or vomiting episodes at post-DH and at 6-month follow-up. Potential mediators and moderators of these hypothesized treatment effects will be examined on an exploratory basis, including self-efficacy, motivation, and hope (potential mediators), and emotion regulation, depression, cognitive psychopathology of eating disorders, and working alliance with the therapist (potential moderators).