Binge Eating Therapy

Cognitive behavioral techniques may help binge eaters gain control.
CNN (4/1, Park) reported, "Many patients who suffer from" binge eating, the "most common eating disorder in the" US, "believe they are overeating and seek weight-loss treatment rather than mental health help, experts" say. "Even when they receive a proper diagnosis, the treatments for binge eating are expensive, time-consuming, and sometimes difficult to obtain." So, researchers at Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research decided to "examine whether a self-guided program would help 123 study participants."
According to the Los Angeles Times (4/1, Dennis) "Booster Shots" blog, those "who went through a 12-week, eight-session program" meant to change their thinking and behavior "were much more likely to gain control of their eating than those participants who simply received the various types of treatment they'd normally get in a managed-care setting." Specifically, "after 12 weeks, 28.3% of the treatment-as-usual group and 63.5% of the cognitive-behavioral-therapy group had managed to stop binging," according to the paper in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. "After a year, those numbers were 44.6% and 64.2%, respectively."