The effect of dialectical behaviour therapy on binge eating, difficulties in emotion regulation and BMI in overweight patients with binge-eating disorder: A randomized controlled trial

Abstract

ObjectiveThis study was conducted to determine the effect of dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT) on binge eating disorder (BED), difficulties in emotion regulation (DER), and body mass index (BMI) of patients suffering from BED and overweight. MethodsSixty female binge eating disorder patients of 19–52 old were randomly assigned into two groups. Thirty patients received dialectical behaviour therapy and the rest (i.e. control group) stayed in the waitlist for 10 weeks in the randomized controlled trial. Patients received a total of 20 treatments (two treatments per week). ResultsAfter 10 weeks, DBT resulted in a significant reduction in the BMI of the patients under treatment (+3.49 ± 1.94 vs. +1.93 ± 1.22kg/m2, P< 0.001). Also, meaningful differences were observed in binge eating scale (BES) (+6.73 ± 3.22 vs. +1.36 ± 1.90, P< 0.001) and difficulties in emotion regulation scale (DERS) (+79.30 ± 27.83 vs. −15.43 ± 24.32, P= 0.01) of the treatment group compared to the control group. ConclusionThis study showed that the relation of the DBT intervention had positive effects on BMI, BED and DER.