Psychotherapy Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Psychotherapy, including details on psychiatry, psychoanalysis, methods, outcomes.

Coping strategies in bulimia nervosa treatment: impact on outcome in group cognitive-behavioral therapy.

Binford RB, Mussell MP, Crosby RD, Peterson CB, Crow SJ, Mitchell JE

Department of Psychiatry, University of Chicago, IL 60637, USA. rbinford@yoda.bsd.uchicago.edu

This study's purpose was to examine the extent to which participants (N = 143) receiving cognitive-behavioral therapy for bulimia nervosa (BN) reported implementing therapeutic strategies to abstain from BN behaviors, and to assess whether use of specific strategies predicts outcome at treatment end and 1- and 6-month follow-up. Frequency of outcome expectancies (OE), stimulus-response prevention (SRP), and social support-seeking (SSS) strategies significantly increased by end of treatment. By 1-month follow-up, use of SSS, not OE or SRP, declined significantly relative to treatment end. Although frequency of coping strategy use at treatment end did not predict 1-month BN symptom remission, SSS use at 1-month follow-up predicted 6-month remission. Findings highlight the importance of social support to maintain treatment gains.

Published 5 January 2006 in J Consult Clin Psychol, 73(6): 1089-96.
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