Cognitive-behavioral therapy with simultaneous nutritional and physical activity education in obese patients with binge eating disorder

An important problem with obese patients suffering from binge eating disor ders (BED) is to treat their dysfunctional eating patterns while initiating a weight loss. We propose to assess a cognitive-behavioral therapy combined with a nutritional and a physical activity program. Our purpose is to verify that the addition of a nutritional and a physical program leads to a significant weight loss and enables psychological improvement. The patients (n=61) participated in a 12 weekly sessions group treatment of either a purely cogni tive-behavioral therapy, or a cognitive-behavioral therapy associated to a nutritional approach mainly focused on fat restriction, or to a cognitive-behavioral therapy combined with a nutritional and a physical activity approach. The mean weight loss is significant (p<0.01) after the association of the cognitive-behavioral therapy and the nutritional educa tion, but is even more significant (p<0.001) after the combination of a cognitive-behavioral therapy with a nutritional education and a physical activity program. Depression scores decrease in the three approaches, anxiety (p<0.05) results improve only in the combined nutritional, physical activity and cognitive-behavioral approach. Eating disorders improved significantly in all three approaches even if improvements in subscales seem more important in the combined approach. Finally, exercise seems to be a positive addition to the nutritional cognitive-behavioral therapy since it decreases negative mood, improves eating disorders and leads to an effective body weight loss. © 2004, Editrice Kurtis.