Cowdrey, N. and Waller, G. (2015) Are we really delivering evidence-based treatments for eating disorders? How eating disordered patients describe their experience of cognitive behavioral therapy. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 75. pp. 72-77. ISSN 1873-622X
Abstract
Psychotherapists report routinely not practising evidence-based treatments. However, there is little research examining the content of therapy from the patient perspective. This study examined the self-reported treatment experiences of individuals who had been told that they had received cognitive-behavior therapy (CBT) for their eating disorder. One hundred and fifty-seven such sufferers (mean age = 25.69 years) were recruited from self-help organisations. Participants completed an online survey assessing demographics, clinical characteristics, and therapy components. The use of evidence-based CBT techniques varied widely, with core elements for the eating disorders (e.g., weighing and food monitoring) used at well below the optimum level, while a number of unevidenced techniques were reported as being used commonly. Cluster analysis showed that participants received different patterns of intervention under the therapist label of ‘CBT’, with evidence-based CBT being the least common. Therapist age and patient diagnosis were related to the pattern of intervention delivered. It appears that clinicians are not subscribing to a transdiagnostic approach to the treatment of eating disorders. Patient recollections in this study support the conclusion that evidence-based practice is not routinely undertaken with this client group, even when the therapy offered is described as such.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. This is an author produced version of a paper subsequently published in Behaviour Research and Therapy. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. Article available under the terms of the CC-BY-NC-ND licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) |
Keywords: | Eating disorders; Cognitive behavior therapy: therapist drift; Patient perspectives |
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: | 16 Nov 2015 11:31 |
Last Modified: | 03 Nov 2017 01:38 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2015.10.009 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Elsevier |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1016/j.brat.2015.10.009 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:91963 |