Abstract
Eating disorders (EDs) are severe and disabling conditions that are difficult to treat. A specific form of cognitive-behavioural therapy focused on the ED is recognised as the gold standard in treatment of bulimia nervosa (BN) and binge eating disorder (BED); however access to this type of treatment is limited in many countries. Online self-help ICBT interventions are therefore an effective way to bridge this gap as part of a stepped care approach to treating EDs. Research shows that ICBT programmes are effective at reducing ED psychopathology and bulimic symptoms and improving quality of life compared to other forms of self-help intervention (bibliotherapy/CD-ROM) and wait list control. In addition ICBT programmes are most effective when delivered with specialist therapist guidance. Despite the support for ICBT programmes for ED, treatment adherence remains an issue and dropout rates can be considerable. Research suggests that treatment adherence is lower in BN patients who are younger and show more dietary restraint and lower BMI at baseline. Furthermore, evidence for the cost-effectiveness of ICBT programmes is as yet limited. Future research is therefore needed to address these issues in order to maximise the effectiveness of, adherence to and scalability of ICBT programmes for EDs.
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Keyes, A., Schmidt, U. (2016). ICBT for Eating Disorders. In: Lindefors, N., Andersson, G. (eds) Guided Internet-Based Treatments in Psychiatry. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-06083-5_10
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