CBT-E in an adult outpatient service: how effective is it in a real world setting?

Background: Eating disorders are one of the most life threatening psychiatric illnesses, and also amongst the most complex to treat. Recently, a shift has been made to enhanced Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT-E) that is transdiagnostic in its scope. The current research aimed to examine improvements in eating disorder pychopathology in adults receiving CBT-E in an outpatient treatment setting. Method: Participants were recruited from an outpatient treatment program for eating disorders. Treatment outcomes were measured through a battery of questionnaires, including the Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire (EDE-Q). These were administered at baseline (n = 24), after six months treatment (n = 16), after 12 months treatment (n = 7), and again at one year post-treatment follow up (n = 6). Results: Participants significantly improved on measures of eating disorder psychopathology, both globally and at subscale level, as measured by scores on the EDE-Q (t=2.97, p<.01). Participants also demonstrated significant improvements in work and social adjustment (t=2.32, p=.03). Conclusions: Overall CBT-E was able to demonstrate significant treatment gains and further our knowledge on factors affecting treatment implementation. Several measures were found to predict participants who dropped out of treatment, giving insight into the non-treatment factors that complicate recovery.