Intensive Outpatient Cognitive Behaviour Therapy for Eating Disorder

The aim of this paper is to describe a novel model of intensive outpatient cognitive-behaviour therapy (CBT) indicated for eating disorder patients who are having difficulty modifying their eating habits in response to conventional outpatient CBT. Intensive outpatient CBT is a manual based treatment derived by the CBT-Enhanced (CBT-E) for eating disorders. The treatment has four features that distinguish it from the conventional outpatient CBT-E: (1) it is designed to be suitable for both adult and adolescent patients, (2) it is delivered by a multidisciplinary non-eclectic team trained in CBT, (3) there is assistance with eating, (4) there is a family therapy module for patients under the age of 18 years. Preliminary outcome of intensive outpatient CBT-E are encouraging. The treatment has been applied to 20 consecutive underweight eating disorder patients (age 18.2 ± 6.5 years; BMI 14.6 ± 1.5 kg/m). Thirteen patients (65%) concluded the treatment, five (25%) were admitted at an eating disorder inpatient unit, and two (10%) prematurely interrupted the treatment. Completers obtained significant weight regain and improvement of eating disorder and general psychopathology. Most of the improvements were maintained at six-month follow-up.