The efficacy of psychological therapies in reducing weight and binge eating in people with bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder who are overweight or obese : a critical synthesis and meta-analyses

Marly Amorim Palavras, Phillipa Hay, Celso Alves dos Santos Filho, Angelica Claudino

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

66 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Recurrent binge eating episodes, the core feature of Bulimia Nervosa (BN) and Binge Eating Disorder (BED), are frequently comorbid with obesity. Psychological interventions, notably Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), are effective for binge eating reduction in BED or BN but less so for weight loss. Behavioural Weight Loss Therapy (BWLT) shows effectiveness for binge eating reduction and weight loss but the latter appears poorly sustained over time. Our aim was to review evidence for efficacy of psychological therapies for BN/BED associated with overweight or obesity in reducing binge frequency and weight. A systematic search for randomized controlled trials with adult samples who had BN or BED was conducted considering articles in English, French, Spanish and Portuguese with no restrictions for the timeline publication ending in March 2016. A quality appraisal of the trials and meta-analyses comparing BWLT to CBT were done. This review identified 2248 articles for screening and 19 published articles were selected. No trials of BN were identified. This review found CBT was favoured compared to BWLT with regard to short-term binge eating reduction. However, insufficient evidence was found for superiority for BWLT efficacy compared to CBT considering binge eating remission, reduction of binge eating frequency and weight loss. More research is needed to test the efficacy of psychological treatments for BED or BN with co-morbid overweight or obesity, including trials evaluating binge eating remission and weight loss in the long-term.
Original languageEnglish
Article number299
Number of pages18
JournalNutrients
Volume9
Issue number3
Publication statusPublished - 17 Mar 2017

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

Open Access - Access Right Statement

© 2017 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Keywords

  • compulsive eating
  • obesity
  • psychotherapy
  • weight control
  • weight loss

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