Eating Disorders Psychotherapy helps to cope with food cravings

Binge Eating Disorder: Psychotherapy helps with recurrent food cravings

Health experts say more and more people are suffering from eating disorders. Among other things, the binge eating disorder is very common. This can best be treated by psychotherapy, according to a new study.

Drastic increase in eating disorders

There has been a dramatic increase in eating disorders in recent years. Especially anorexia nervosa (anorexia nervosa) and bulimia nervosa (eating-refractive addiction) have greatly increased. But so-called "binge eating disorder" (BES) is on the rise. This results in periodic food cravings with loss of conscious control over eating behavior. In contrast to bulimia, no countermeasures are taken afterwards, so that in the longer term mostly obesity is the result. According to a recent study, this eating disorder is best treated with psychotherapy.

Scientists have investigated how effective the different forms of therapy are in binge eating disorders. Psychotherapy has proven to be highly effective in the treatment of binge eating. (Image: JenkoAtaman / fotolia.com)

Regular binging

In a binge eating disorder sufferers suffer from regularly recurring binging.

Within a short period of time, usually just a few hours, they consume significantly more food than normal and feel they lose control of their eating habits.

As a rule, these bouts are triggered by negative mood. The disease is often associated with low self-esteem, other mental disorders such as depression and obesity (obesity).

For treatment of binge eating disorder, different forms of therapy come into question.

Comparison of the different forms of therapy

Scientists of the Leipzig University Medicine around Prof. Dr. med. Anja Hilbert from the IFB Adiposity Diseases have now investigated how effective the different forms of therapy are.

In a large-scale meta-analysis, they compared the effects of various randomized controlled trials.

"Over the past decade, the number of studies on the treatment of binge eating disorders has almost doubled," says Anja Hilbert, professor of behavioral medicine at the University of Leipzig, in a statement.

"Our study summarizes and confirms, refines and extends earlier findings from comprehensive meta-analyzes," said the scientist.

Psychotherapy proved to be highly effective

Psychotherapy, especially Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, has been reported to be highly effective in treating binge eating.

Compared to untreated control groups, patients treated with psychotherapy were ten times more likely to no longer suffer from binge eating at the end of treatment.

"Even in the long term, the success of therapy has been demonstrable," explains Hilbert. Other forms of therapy performed worse.

Thus, obesity behavior therapy for weight loss was significantly less effective in the treatment of binge eating.

However, structured self-help, in which patients receive work materials and information on binge eating disorders, achieved somewhat weaker effects than psychotherapy compared to untreated control groups.

Pharmacotherapy, such as antidepressants, also proved to be less successful: patients treated with pharmacotherapy had a twofold increase in the probability of no more binge eating after treatment compared to placebo groups.

The study results published in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology are of great clinical relevance.

They have already been included in the new scientific S3 guideline of the German Society for Eating Disorders (DGESS) on the "Diagnosis and Treatment of Eating Disorders". (Ad)