Actively Preventing Relapse in Patients with Bulimia Nervosa

Reprinted from Eating Disorders Review
May/June 2004 Volume 15, Number 3
©2004 Gürze Books

Simply telling patients with bulimia nervosa who appear to have been successfully treated to come back if they have additional problems, or if they fear that they are developing such problems, may be an ineffective technique to prevent relapse, according to researchers at the University of North Dakota.

A recent multi-center study examined a strategy to prevent relapse among patients with bulimia nervosa (Int J Eat Disord 2004; 35: 549). Dr. James Mitchell and colleagues studied patients who had initially achieved abstinence after having a course of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). The patients were told to re-contact the clinic to schedule additional visits if their symptoms recurred or if they feared symptoms would return. At the end of the CBT patients whose scores on the Eating Disorders Examination indicated they were no longer binge eating and purging, and thus who were considered to be successfully treated, were assigned randomly to follow-up only or to a crisis intervention model, in which the patient would receive additional visits if needed.

Results

None of the 30 subjects who relapsed during the follow-up period sought additional treatment visits. The authors believe that alternative strategies, such as scheduled return visits or phone calls to patients, should be considered as alternative relapse prevention strategies.

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