Metacognitive therapy for binge eating disorder: A case series study

Abstract

Objectives

Current evidence supporting the effectiveness of psychotherapy for the treatment of Binge Eating Disorder (BED) indicates that there is still a need to improve outcomes by investigating the application of new developments in psychotherapy for the treatment of BED. Metacognitive Therapy (MCT) has been successfully applied for the management of several psychological disorders. However, to date, there has been no published research in the area of MCT for BED.

Method

The current study employed a case series design to explore the application of MCT for BED. Three participants engaged in 12-weeks of MCT treatment.

Results

All participants no longer met criteria for BED at the end of therapy and displayed significant improvement on the Emotional Overeating Questionnaire (EOQ) and Binge Eating Scale (BES) at both post‐treatment and at 2‐month follow‐up. Results on the Metacognitive Questionnaire (MCQ‐30) suggest that MCT, as an intervention for BED, may target positive metacognitions and, to a lesser extent, negative metacognitions.

Conclusion

The results of this study suggest that MCT is a promising intervention in the treatment of BED, warranting further investigation.

Key words:

• Binge Eating Disorder
• Binge Eating Scale
• case series
• emotional overeating
• metacognitions
• metacognitive therapy