Wright, C. and Waller, G. orcid.org/0000-0001-7794-9546 (2020) The impact of teaching clinicians about implementing exposure therapy with patients with eating disorders: A nonrandomized controlled study. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 53 (1). pp. 107-112. ISSN 0276-3478
Abstract
Objective Exposure therapy is a central part of cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) for eating disorders, but is underused in routine clinical practice, at least partly because clinicians often hold very negative views about this technique. Although uncontrolled cohort studies suggest that teaching clinicians to use exposure improves their attitudes, there is a need for more robust empirical designs. This study uses a nonrandomized controlled design to test whether teaching on exposure improves clinicians' attitudes to its use, and whether clinician characteristics influence such change.
Method Forty‐seven clinicians undertook 90 min of teaching on exposure therapy within CBT, while 42 other clinicians undertook 90 min of teaching on CBT for eating disorders. Each completed the Therapist Beliefs about Exposure Scale at the outset and end of the intervention, and the Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale at the outset.
Results Both groups showed improved attitudes to exposure therapy following the teaching, but the change was substantially larger in the Exposure teaching group (d = 0.85) than in the Comparison group (d = .30). Preteaching characteristics did not have any substantial influence on this change in attitudes to exposure.
Discussion These findings strengthen the conclusion that a simple teaching intervention can improve clinician attitudes to the exposure therapy element of CBT (and other therapies). However, the nonrandomized design and self‐selected sample limit the interpretability of the findings. Further research is suggested to develop these findings and determine their link to clinician behavior in therapy.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. This is an author-produced version of a paper subsequently published in International Journal of Eating Disorders. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | anxiety; cognitive behavior therapy; eating disorders; exposure therapy; teaching |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Science (Sheffield) > Department of Psychology (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 11 Dec 2019 16:55 |
Last Modified: | 19 Oct 2021 08:20 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Wiley |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1002/eat.23171 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:154537 |