Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Eating Disorders
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Eating DisordersSkip to the navigationTreatment OverviewCognitive-behavioral therapy is an active type of counseling.
Sessions usually are held once a week for as long as you need to master new
skills. Individual sessions last 1 hour, and group sessions may be longer.
During cognitive-behavioral therapy for
eating disorders, you learn: - About your illness, its symptoms, and how to
predict when symptoms will most likely recur.
- To keep a diary of
eating episodes, binge eating, purging, and the events that may have triggered
these episodes.
- To eat more regularly, with meals or snacks spaced
no more than 3 or 4 hours apart.
- How to change the way you think
about your symptoms. This reduces the power the symptoms have over
you.
- How to change self-defeating thought patterns into patterns
that are more helpful. This improves mood and your sense of mastery over your
life. This helps you avoid future episodes.
- Ways to handle daily
problems differently.
What To Expect After TreatmentYou can use your cognitive-behavioral skills throughout your life.
You may find that additional "tune-up" sessions help you stay on track with
your new skills. Why It Is Done Cognitive-behavioral therapy is used to treat the mental and
emotional elements of an eating disorder. This type of therapy is done to
change how you think and feel about food, eating, and body image. It is also done to help correct poor eating
habits and prevent relapse. How Well It WorksCognitive-behavioral therapy is considered effective for the
treatment of eating disorders.footnote 1 But because
eating disorder behaviors can endure for a long period of time, ongoing
psychological treatment is usually needed. Cognitive-behavioral
therapy may be more effective for treating
bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder rather than
anorexia nervosa.footnote 2 RisksThere are no known risks associated with cognitive-behavioral
therapy. What To Think AboutFor cognitive-behavioral therapy to be most effective, be sure to
work together with your counselor toward common goals. If you think you are not
working well with your counselor, discuss your concerns with him or her or your
primary doctor. If you have a mental health condition along with an eating
disorder, your doctor may suggest medicine. Treating a problem
such as
depression or
obsessive-compulsive disorder may help you recover
from an eating disorder. Complete the special treatment information form (PDF)(What is a PDF document?) to help you understand this treatment. ReferencesCitations- Hay PPJ, et al. (2009). Psychological treatments for bulimia nervosa and binging. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (4).
- Anderson AE, Yager J (2009). Eating disorders. In BJ Sadock et al., eds., Kaplan and Sadock's Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry, 9th ed., vol. 1, pp. 2128-2149. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams and Wilkins.
CreditsByHealthwise Staff
Primary Medical ReviewerKathleen Romito, MD - Family Medicine
Specialist Medical ReviewerW. Stewart Agras, MD, FRCPC - Psychiatry Current as of:
May 3, 2017 Hay PPJ, et al. (2009). Psychological treatments for bulimia nervosa and binging. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (4). Anderson AE, Yager J (2009). Eating disorders. In BJ Sadock et al., eds., Kaplan and Sadock's Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry, 9th ed., vol. 1, pp. 2128-2149. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams and Wilkins. Last modified on: 8 September 2017
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