Extract

Background and study aims About 10% of women and 1% of men are affected by eating disorders (EDs). Bulimia nervosa (BN) is a common ED that involves repeated episodes of uncontrolled eating and compensatory behaviors such as avoiding eating, over a period of at least three months. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which helps in managing behavioral problems, works well and is the treatment of choice for BN and similar EDs, but it is rarely offered to people coming to specialist outpatient facilities due to a relative lack of CBT therapists. In internet-based CBT guided self-help (CBT-GSH), each therapist can treat about four times as many patients as compared to standard therapy. This may lead to shorter waiting lists and that means more patients can be offered CBT. Previous university studies have shown positive results from CBT-GSH. However, in the clinic the impacts are still largely unknown and have rarely been tested. The aim of this study is to find out whether CBT-GSH is good enough to put into practice as a complement to the usual treatment. Who can participate? Participants should at least be 18 years of age, and have BN or a similar ED. What does the study involve? Participants are randomly allocated to one of two groups: internet-based CBT-GSH or to an intensive day patient program (DPP). The CBT-GSH group have weekly contact over the internet with a therapist and work with CBT-based exercises for a maximum of 24 weeks. The main differences between the two types of CBT-GSH are that one is purely interactive and associated with license costs for the clinic whereas the other comes with a paperback manual and is essentially free of charge. The DPP group participate three hours daily for 16 weeks in a treatment that provides group and individual therapy, meals, body knowledge and art therapy. DPP is not experimentally validated, but is one of the standard treatments at the clinic. What are the possible benefits and risks of participating? The possible benefit of participating is a chance to quickly get access to a form of CBT or to a well-tried intensive group treatment. There are no known risks of participating. Participants are informed that they can withdraw from the study at any time, without any negative consequences. Participants who do not wish to participate receive standard treatment at the clinic. Where is the study run from? Stockholm Center for Eating Disorders, the Stockholm county council, Sweden. When is the study starting and how long is it expected to run for? The study started in 2009 and it is expected to run until 2016. The recruitment was carried out from October 2009 through February 2013. Who is funding the study? Financial support was provided for clinical research by Stockholm County Council (Sweden) and partly from a government grant via Stockholm County Council board administration. Who is the main contact? Ms Louise Högdahl [email protected]

Inclusion criteria

• Bulimia nervosa and similar eating disorders not otherwise specified

Links

• isrctn
• ictrp