A new study from Rutgers University in New Jersey found that certain kinds of talk therapy works better than behavioral weight-loss treatment to help people with binge eating disorder.

Binge eating disorder includes episodes of out-of-control eating. A person might consume, for example, 10,000 calories or more at one sitting. In order to be diagnosed with binge eating disorder, the person must feel that he has no control over his eating episodes, and he must experience shame and regret after such an event.

• In the new study, Dr. Terrence Wilson assigned 205 men and women with binge eating disorders to either 20 sessions of interpersonal psychotherapy, 20 sessions of behavioral weight-loss treatment, or 10 sessions of guided self-help and cognitive behavioral therapy.
  
• There were no differences among the three groups in terms of improvements in the rates of binge eating episodes after treatment or six months later.
  
• However, two years later, the interpersonal therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy/guided self-help groups were significantly better in terms of their remission from binge eating.

The study appeared in the Archives of General Psychiatry.

Labels: binge eating, treatment, therapy

Posted By: Aspen/CRC