Eating Disorders in Adolescents and Young Adults: A Program Evaluation of a Canadian Eating Disorder Treatment Program.

BACKGROUND

Current treatments for adolescents with eating disorders (ED) show limited effectiveness, emphasizing the need for enhanced therapeutic approaches. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) has emerged as a potential alternative. A derivative of this approach, group cognitive behavioral therapy (G-CBT), has been shown to reduce treatment costs and increase treatment accessibility when compared to CBT. This program evaluation aimed to assess the effectiveness of G-CBT in adolescents and young adults diagnosed with anorexia nervosa (AN) or bulimia nervosa (BN) and experiencing comorbid anxiety and depression within a Canadian mental health facility. The specific objectives were to determine if participants increased their knowledge about eating normalization and coping strategies after participating in the eating disorder (ED) treatment program and examine if participants experienced changes in eating-disordered behavior, anxiety, and mental health.

METHODS

We conducted a program evaluation using secondary data collected at admission and discharge from 44 adolescents and young adults (16-39 years) with AN or BN participating in the ED program at a Canadian health center. Outcome measures were eating psychopathology, depression, anxiety, and illness cognitions assessed using validated tools: Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire (EDE-Q), Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), General Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7), and Illness Cognition Scale (ICS).

RESULTS

The mean age of participants was 24.1 years (standard deviation (SD) = 5.8). All outcome measures showed statistically significant improvement from admission to discharge (p < 0.001). Specifically, subscales of the EDE-Q (eating concern, weight concern, shape concern, and restraint) and the global score indicated a significant reduction in ED behaviors (p < 0.001).

CONCLUSION

Findings suggest that G-CBT is effective in reducing eating-disordered behavior, depression, anxiety, and maladaptive illness cognitions in adolescents and young adults with EDs. These results underscore the potential of G-CBT to address both behavioral and psychological aspects of ED recovery, although further studies with control groups are warranted to confirm these findings.