Acceptance and Commitment Therapy as a Novel Treatment for Eating Disorders

Abstract

Eating disorders are among the most challenging disorders to treat, with even state-of-the-art cognitive-behavioral treatments achieving only modest success. One possible reason for the high rate of treatment failure for eating disorders is that existing treatments do not attend sufficiently to critical aspects of the disorder such as high experiential avoidance, poor experiential awareness, and lack of motivation. These variables are explicit targets of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). The current study examined the efficacy of an ACT-based group treatment for eating disorders by examining whether the addition of ACT groups to treatment-as-usual (TAU) at a residential treatment facility for eating disorders would improve treatment outcomes. TAU patients received an intensive residential treatment, while ACT patients received these services but additionally attended, depending on diagnosis, either ACT for anorexia nervosa groups or ACT for bulimia nervosa groups. Although individuals in both treatment conditions demonstrated large decreases in eating pathology, there were trends toward larger decreases among those receiving ACT. ACT patients also showed lower rates of rehospitalization during the 6 months after discharge. Overall, results suggest that ACT is a viable treatment option for individuals with eating pathology and further outcome research is warranted.

Introduction to SMART designs for the development of adaptive interventions: with application to weight loss research

“…As with IBT in the first-stage, there is an evidence base for IBT+MR [5,56,57] and ACT [58][59][60][61][62] as second-stage treatment options for weight loss. MR is effective for weight loss, in part, because it alleviates the need for decision-making regarding what food(s) to prepare as well as the time and effort needed to prepare the food.…”

“…Previous research also suggests the promise of ACT for managing or losing weight (Table 2) [58][59][60][61][62]. Although ACT may not produce superior weight losses on average compared to more traditional interventions, ACT may be particularly effective for certain types of individuals, specifically, those who experience higher levels of negative affect, and may, therefore, be a suitable second-stage treatment option for nonresponders.…”

Distress tolerance across self-report, behavioral and psychophysiological domains in women with eating disorders and healthy controls

“…The finding that EDs are associated with overall greater subjective distress without deleterious effects on the PASAT-C performance relative to HCs has treatment implications for the function of disordered eating to decrease distress (Corstorphine et al, 2007). Individuals with EDs may benefit from treatments that focus on fostering greater acceptance of one's emotional experiences, such as Dialectical Behavior Therapy (Chen et al, 2015;Safer, Robinson, & Jo, 2010) or Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (Berman, Boutelle, & Crow, 2009;A. Juarascio et al, 2013;A.…”

Psychological risk factors, cognitive-contextual approaches and neural correlates in eating disorders: an integrative review

“…Mindfulness, acceptance and compassion-based approaches have recently been considered as important adaptive emotion regulation strategies to cope with negative emotions and thus diminishing eating pathology and improving well-being [82][83][84].…”