Chapter 18 – Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy in Adolescent Eating Disorders

Dalle Grave, R. (2019). Chapter 18 – Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy in Adolescent Eating Disorders. In J. Hebebrand & B. Herpertz-Dahlmann (Eds.), Eating Disorders and Obesity in Children and Adolescents (pp. 111-116). Philadelphia: Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-323-54852-6.00018-5Get rights and content

Eating Disorders and Obesity in Children and Adolescents
Abstract

Enhanced cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT-E) for eating disorders is a promising treatment for adolescents. CBT-E has been designed for outpatient, intensive outpatient, and inpatient settings and can be delivered in a stepped-care approach. Outpatient CBT-E features three structured steps—starting well, addressing the change, and ending well—and is delivered by a single therapist over 30–40 50-min sessions in patients who are underweight, and 20 sessions in those who are not. CBT-E is well accepted by adolescents; its collaborative nature is well suited to ambivalent young patients who may be particularly concerned about control issues. Moreover, its transdiagnostic nature makes it suitable for treating all the main eating disorders that afflict adolescent patients. In addition to the promising results obtained in cohort studies, these features suggest that CBT-E for adolescents is a potentially good alternative to family-based treatment.