Dialectical behavior therapy adapted for bulimia: a case report.
OBJECTIVE
This case report describes the application of dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) to the treatment of bulimia nervosa in a 20-session manualized therapy.


METHODS
The treatment, based on an affect regulation model of eating disorders, was developed to teach emotion regulation skills to replace eating-disordered behaviors. The patient, a 36-year-old woman, had a long history of binge eating and purging that had not responded to 2 years of counseling. In the 4 weeks before treatment began, she reported 13 objective binges and 21 purging episodes.


CONCLUSIONS
Upon initiating DBT, her binge eating and purging rapidly declined. She achieved abstinence by the fifth week of treatment and maintained it through treatment. In the 6 months following treatment, she reported a total of two objective binge episodes and two purge episodes.
Safer
D L
DL
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California 94305-5722, USA.
Telch
C F
CF
Agras
W S
WS
D000328:Adult; D001521:Behavior Therapy; D002032:Bulimia / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy*; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014839:Vomiting