Eating Pathology: Beyond Traditional Psychotherapeutic Approaches

First, a systematic literature review assessed the efficacy of third-wave interventions to treat individuals who have been diagnosed with an eating disorder. Twenty-three studies which cover five forms of intervention were considered - Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Compassion Focussed Therapy, Dialectical Behaviour Therapy, Mindfulness-Based Interventions, and Schema Therapy. At present, this field of research is in its infancy, as is reflected in the quantity and quality of the studies available for this review. Dialectical Behaviour Therapy appears to be the most robust third-wave intervention in this field. A lack of meaningful comparisons means that further research is required to compare third-wave interventions with other evidenced-based psychological interventions.
Second, the empirical report developed an eating-pathology-specific measure of interpersonal problems, intended to have greater clinical utility for eating pathology than a generic interpersonal problems measure. A large community sample of participants completed online psychometric measures including a novel eating-specific interpersonal problems questionnaire - the Interpersonal Problems in Eating Disorders scale (IR-ED). Participants also completed a generic measure of interpersonal problems and measures of depression, anxiety, social anxiety and eating pathology. The IR-ED has strong psychometric validity. In comparison to the generic measure of interpersonal problems, the final 15-item version of the IR-ED shows similar associations with depression and anxiety and a superior ability to detect and predict eating pathology.
The two components of this thesis expand upon traditional approaches of psychological intervention for people who experience eating pathology by considering the context within which individuals cognitions occur.