Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (BED)

BED has a high psychopathological comorbity. Overall, 78.3% of individuals with BED experience at least one additional psychiatric disorder in their lifetime, the most common being mood and anxiety disorders (Grilo, White, & Masheb, 2008). This is not surprising, especially since depression and low self-esteem go hand in hand. Depression is an extremely debilitating condition that is characterized by persistent sadness, loss of interest and pleasure, and a low self-worth. It not only affects their mood, it can also affect their job or school performance because they have trouble concentrating and no motivation to do any sort of activity. Luckily, there are several different methods for the treatment of BED. The main goal of treatment is

Since stress plays a big role in triggering binges and maintaining BED, this type of psychotherapy focuses on learning behavioral skills that help them tolerate stress, and improve one’s emotions as well as relationships with others (Wiser & Telch, 1999). Targeting all of these aspects reduces the individual’s urge to binge. DBT for eating disorders is composed of three treatment components, including mindfulness skills, distress tolerance, and emotion regulation (Wiser & Telch, 1999). Each of these targets a different aspect in the overall emotion regulation. For example, mindfulness teaches the individual to be in control of their mind. While CBT teaches how to change negative mindset, this teaches one how to accept whatever one is feeling in a given moment. This is beneficial in those with BED because they often have intrusive thoughts that lead them to binge. For the distress tolerance module, the goal is to reduce maladaptive behaviors that occur in attempt to relieve pain/distress (Wiser & Telch, 1999). In this case, binge eating provides immediate gratification for experiencing distress. After therapy, one comes out with more knowledge on healthy ways to cope with these negative emotions that do not involve binging. Emotion regulation is the last module that is emphasized in DBT therapy. As the name states, this involves regulating one’s emotions, more

According to a study published in the International Journal of Eating Disorders, the obese binge eaters differed from the non-obese binge eaters in a wide range of eating-related characteristics, but not in mental health issues (Decaluwe, Braet, & Fairburn, 2002). This suggests that each group should have their own specialized treatment. For the obese binge eaters, medicines that have effects on appetite and weight loss have been shown to have therapeutic effects on the patients (McElroy, Guedjikova, Mori, & O’Melia, 2012). However, future research should focus on the neurobiology of BED, in order to develop successful treatment methods for each group. The brain is a very complicated system with many pathways, and while we may know a lot of the systems of the brain that influence feeding behaviors, it may vary from person to person. Therefore, future studies with representative samples would be beneficial to further ones knowledge on this