A5180 - Acting as a Team to Help Our Patients

Abstract

ACT is a behavioral therapy designed to guide people to mindfully change their behaviors in the direction of their deepest desires. ACT aims to help people live in mindful, values-congruent ways.Increasing research is being done on the use of ACT in the area of weight loss (with and without weight loss surgery).Results from a 2012 study “show that (weight loss surgery) participants in the ACT condition significantly improve on eating disordered behaviors, body dissatisfaction, quality of life and acceptance for weight related thoughts and feelings, as compared to those in the treatment as usual (TAU) group.” 1Results from a study in 2012 looking at eating attitudes, body anxiety, and preoccupation with eating, weight, and shape using ACT reported that those in the ACT group showed significant reductions in body-related anxiety and significant increases in acceptance when compared to the wait-list control condition. 2A pilot study sponsored by the National Institutes for Health examined the preliminary acceptability and efficacy of a 24-week acceptance-based behavioral intervention for weight loss among overweight and obese adults reporting difficulty with eating in response to emotions and thoughts. Our findings provide initial support for the feasibility, efficacy, and acceptability of this approach for this subgroup of participants.3When used in nonclinical environments, ACT is sometimes referred to as “acceptance and commitment training.” While a licensed therapist can help weight loss surgery patients work to change how they experience what they perceive to be difficult thoughts, emotions and physiological feelings, a core principle of ACT therapy, all members of the bariatric interdisciplinary team can help patients keep their values and goals in the forefront of their minds and help them focus on choosing behaviors consistent with those values. In this way, the entire interdisciplinary team can effectively use the ACT approach to assist patients to ACT in the treatment of their obesity.