Predictors of therapeutic alliance in two treatments for adults with severe and enduring anorexia nervosa

Colleen Stiles-Shields; Bryony H. Bamford; Stephen Touyz; Daniel Le Grange; Phillipa Hay; Hubert Lacey

doi:10.1186/s40337-016-0102-6

Predictors of therapeutic alliance in two treatments for adults with severe and enduring anorexia nervosa

Colleen Stiles-Shields, Bryony H. Bamford, Stephen Touyz, Daniel Le Grange, Phillipa Hay, Hubert Lacey

Western Sydney University

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Background: Therapeutic alliance (TA) has been found to be a significant predictor of outcome for patients with severe and enduring anorexia nervosa (SE-AN), accounting for more variance than treatment type. To better understand how to promote TA for this population, the aim of the current study was to investigate predictors of TA in adults with SE-AN. Methods: participants were 63 adult females with SE-AN presenting to an outpatient, multi-site randomized controlled trial conducted at two clinical sites. Participants’ perception of the quality of their therapeutic relationship, demographic information, and eating disorder symptomatology were assessed via interview and questionnaire measures. Results: Baseline ratings of how successful participants believed treatment would be for them was the only variable to significantly predict early (p = .01), mid (p = .009), and late treatment alliance (p = .03). No other variables investigated predicted the quality of patient rated TA at any point in treatment (ps > .57). Conclusions: Results suggest instilling hope in treatment outcome may enhance TA, and in turn, outcomes for patients with SE-AN in outpatient therapy.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1-7
Number of pages	7
Journal	Journal of Eating Disorders
Volume	4
Issue number	13
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1186/s40337-016-0102-6
Publication status	Published - 2016

Open Access - Access Right Statement

© 2016 Stiles-Shields et al. Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.

Keywords

anorexia nervosa
cognitive-behavioral therapy
eating disorders
therapeutic alliance

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10.1186/s40337-016-0102-6

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title = "Predictors of therapeutic alliance in two treatments for adults with severe and enduring anorexia nervosa",

abstract = "Background: Therapeutic alliance (TA) has been found to be a significant predictor of outcome for patients with severe and enduring anorexia nervosa (SE-AN), accounting for more variance than treatment type. To better understand how to promote TA for this population, the aim of the current study was to investigate predictors of TA in adults with SE-AN. Methods: participants were 63 adult females with SE-AN presenting to an outpatient, multi-site randomized controlled trial conducted at two clinical sites. Participants{\textquoteright} perception of the quality of their therapeutic relationship, demographic information, and eating disorder symptomatology were assessed via interview and questionnaire measures. Results: Baseline ratings of how successful participants believed treatment would be for them was the only variable to significantly predict early (p = .01), mid (p = .009), and late treatment alliance (p = .03). No other variables investigated predicted the quality of patient rated TA at any point in treatment (ps > .57). Conclusions: Results suggest instilling hope in treatment outcome may enhance TA, and in turn, outcomes for patients with SE-AN in outpatient therapy.",

keywords = "anorexia nervosa, cognitive-behavioral therapy, eating disorders, therapeutic alliance",

author = "Colleen Stiles-Shields and Bamford, {Bryony H.} and Stephen Touyz and {Le Grange}, Daniel and Phillipa Hay and Hubert Lacey",

year = "2016",

doi = "10.1186/s40337-016-0102-6",

language = "English",

volume = "4",

pages = "1--7",

journal = "Journal of Eating Disorders",

issn = "2050-2974",

publisher = "BioMed Central",

number = "13",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Predictors of therapeutic alliance in two treatments for adults with severe and enduring anorexia nervosa

AU - Stiles-Shields, Colleen

AU - Bamford, Bryony H.

AU - Touyz, Stephen

AU - Le Grange, Daniel

AU - Hay, Phillipa

AU - Lacey, Hubert

PY - 2016

Y1 - 2016

N2 - Background: Therapeutic alliance (TA) has been found to be a significant predictor of outcome for patients with severe and enduring anorexia nervosa (SE-AN), accounting for more variance than treatment type. To better understand how to promote TA for this population, the aim of the current study was to investigate predictors of TA in adults with SE-AN. Methods: participants were 63 adult females with SE-AN presenting to an outpatient, multi-site randomized controlled trial conducted at two clinical sites. Participants’ perception of the quality of their therapeutic relationship, demographic information, and eating disorder symptomatology were assessed via interview and questionnaire measures. Results: Baseline ratings of how successful participants believed treatment would be for them was the only variable to significantly predict early (p = .01), mid (p = .009), and late treatment alliance (p = .03). No other variables investigated predicted the quality of patient rated TA at any point in treatment (ps > .57). Conclusions: Results suggest instilling hope in treatment outcome may enhance TA, and in turn, outcomes for patients with SE-AN in outpatient therapy.

AB - Background: Therapeutic alliance (TA) has been found to be a significant predictor of outcome for patients with severe and enduring anorexia nervosa (SE-AN), accounting for more variance than treatment type. To better understand how to promote TA for this population, the aim of the current study was to investigate predictors of TA in adults with SE-AN. Methods: participants were 63 adult females with SE-AN presenting to an outpatient, multi-site randomized controlled trial conducted at two clinical sites. Participants’ perception of the quality of their therapeutic relationship, demographic information, and eating disorder symptomatology were assessed via interview and questionnaire measures. Results: Baseline ratings of how successful participants believed treatment would be for them was the only variable to significantly predict early (p = .01), mid (p = .009), and late treatment alliance (p = .03). No other variables investigated predicted the quality of patient rated TA at any point in treatment (ps > .57). Conclusions: Results suggest instilling hope in treatment outcome may enhance TA, and in turn, outcomes for patients with SE-AN in outpatient therapy.

KW - anorexia nervosa

KW - cognitive-behavioral therapy

KW - eating disorders

KW - therapeutic alliance

UR - http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/uws:35194

U2 - 10.1186/s40337-016-0102-6

DO - 10.1186/s40337-016-0102-6

M3 - Article

SN - 2050-2974

VL - 4

SP - 1

EP - 7

JO - Journal of Eating Disorders

JF - Journal of Eating Disorders

IS - 13

ER -

Predictors of therapeutic alliance in two treatments for adults with severe and enduring anorexia nervosa

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