Development of emotion acceptance behavior therapy for anorexia nervosa: A case series

Abstract

This case series describes the development of a novel psychotherapeutic intervention for older adolescents and adults with anorexia nervosa (AN). Emotion acceptance behavior therapy (EABT) is based on a model that emphasizes the role of anorexic symptoms in facilitating avoidance of emotions. EABT combines standard behavioral interventions that are central to the clinical management of AN with psychotherapeutic techniques designed to increase emotion awareness, decrease emotion avoidance, and encourage resumption of valued activities and relationships outside the eating disorder. Five AN patients ages 17-43 years were offered a 24-session manualized version of EABT. Four patients completed at least 90% of the therapy sessions, and three showed modest weight gains without return to intensive treatment. Improvements in depressive and anxiety symptoms, emotion avoidance, and quality of life also were observed. These results offer preliminary support for the potential utility of EABT in the treatment of older adolescents and adults with AN.

Accept, distract, or reframe? An exploratory experimental comparison of strategies for coping with intrusive body image thoughts in anorexia nervosa and body dysmorphic disorder

“…This is in line with our hypothesis and with the effectiveness of CBT for BDD ; see Greenberg and Wilhelm, 2011 for a review) and, to a lesser extent, in AN (see Murphy, et al, 2010 for a review). This finding is also in accordance with support for ACT in case series of patients with AN (Berman et al, 2009;Wildes and Marcus, 2011), disorders of the OCspectrum, thus in disorders related with BDD (Twohig et al, 2010;Twohig, 2009 for review), as well as in a preliminary short ACT-intervention in adults with body dissatisfaction (Pearson et al, 2012). And finally, it also corroborates encouraging findings about the short-term success of distraction in OCD (Najmi et al, 2009).…”

Facial expression of positive emotions in individuals with eating disorders

“…Research of this nature could inform already existing therapies addressing emotion functioning in eating disorders, such as Cognitive Remediation and Emotional Skills Training (CREST) , Emotion Acceptance Behaviour Therapy (EABT) for Anorexia Nervosa (Wildes and Marcus, 2011), and Radically Open-Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (RO-DBT) (Lynch et al, in press). …”

Examining the associations between emotion regulation difficulties, anxiety, and eating disorder severity among inpatients with anorexia nervosa

“…There is a growing interest in targeting emotion regulation difficulties in the treatment of AN 27,28 . The results of this study suggest that a treatment focus on enhancing emotion regulation abilities is likely be beneficial to at least some individuals with AN during illness.…”