Cognitive behavioral and parental group intervention for adolescents in the treatment of bulimia nervosa

Abstract

The objective was to evaluate the effectiveness of an intervention program for adolescents with bulimia composed of a cognitive-behavioral treatment for patients (12 sessions) and a psychoeducational group activity with their parents (12 sessions). The study was conducted with 21 adolescent patients, diagnosed with bulimia nervosa, of the Eating Disorders Unit at the Hospital del Niño Jesus (Madrid, Spain), and their parents. The control group consisted of 17 patients with similar characteristics, whose parents received no intervention. The results show that this form of intervention is highly effective in reducing the core symptoms of bulimia nervosa and associated symptoms, maintaining the result at one year follow up, and that it is more effective than the control group (consisting in treatment for patients only) as regards dropouts and relapses, finding some statistically signifi cant differences in these two variables.