Dropping Out from Psychological Treatment for Eating Disorders: What are the Issues?

Abstract

The paper reviews the literature on dropping out from psychological treatments for eating disorders (pharmacological

Effectiveness of cognitive behavioral therapy supported by virtual reality in the treatment of body image in eating disorders: One year follow-up

“…participants diagnosed with AN, BN, and EDNOS. Inclusion criteria were very broad, so it is safe to state that the sample is representative of patients seen in daily clinical practice (Mahon, 2000;Bell, 2001;Hass and Clopton, 2003). Conducting a one year follow-up also allowed us to demonstrate that the results are consistent and that they evolved as expected, which is a highly relevant aspect given eating disorder relapse rates.…”

Problems across care pathways in specialist adult eating disorder services

“…Other studies show high rates of drop-out and failure to engage (e.g. Coker et al, 1993;Mahon, 2000), but have not taken the whole patient journey into account. The generalisability of these findings to other specialist and general psychiatric services remains to be established.…”

“…Such attrition is already recognised in the forms of drop-out and failure to engage (e.g. Coker et al, 1993;Mahon, 2000). However, other factors cause referrals to deviate from the typical course of care (e.g.…”

What can dropouts teach us about retention in eating disorder treatment studies?

“…9 This may be due, in part, to the fact that few treatment studies report dropout rates or describe characteristics of treatment dropouts, making comparisons across studies difficult. In addition, few treatment studies have described specific efforts made to minimize dropouts.…”