Effectiveness of Rhythmic Movement Therapy for Disordered Eating Behaviors and Obesity

Abstract

The aims of the present study were: a) to examine associations between pre-treatment BMI, body dissatisfaction, perfectionism, alexithymia, and restraint, emotional and external eating behaviour in obese patients; b) to analyze the impact of the pre-treatment measures in psychological variables on the outcome of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) program; c) to test the effectiveness of rhythmic movement therapy (RMT) in the treatment of disordered eating behaviors and obesity with the CBT non-responders. At the first stage of treatment a total of 104 patients (32 males and 72 females, mean age was 37.6 +/- 6.7 years) self-referred or referred by professionals to CBT weight management program were selected at random. At the second stage 58 obese CBT-non-responders were randomly divided among the continuing CBT individual treatment group and RMT group. Control group was included. Results revealed that: a) significant associations existed between pre-treatment BMI, external eating and two dimensions of perfectionism, as well as between emotional and external eating and all dimensions of perfectionism, alexithymia and body image dissatisfaction; b) pre-treatment means of psychological variables significantly impacted the CBT program outcome; c). the efficacy of RMT approach for weight reduction as well as for the improvement of psychological status for CBT-non-responders was confirmed.