I know what you did last summer (and it was not CBT): a factor analytic model of international psychotherapeutic practice in the eating disorders.
OBJECTIVE
Although several studies have shown that eating disorders clinicians do not generally use treatment manuals, findings regarding what they do use have typically been vague, or closely linked to a particular theoretical approach. Our goal was to identify what eating disorder clinicians do with their patients in a more theoretically neutral context. We also sought to describe an empirically defined approach to psychotherapeutic practice as defined by clinicians via factor analysis.


METHODS
A survey developed for this study was administered to 265 clinicians recruited online and at regional and international meetings for eating disorders professionals.


RESULTS
Only 6% of respondents reported they adhered closely to treatment manuals and 98% of the respondents indicated they used both behavioral and dynamically informed interventions. Factor analysis of clinicians' use of 32 therapeutic strategies suggested seven dimensions: Psychodynamic Interventions, Coping Skills Training, Family History, CBT, Contracts, Therapist Disclosure, and Patient Feelings.


CONCLUSIONS
The findings of this study suggest that most clinicians use a wide array of eating disorder treatment interventions drawn from empirically supported treatments, such as CBT-BN, and from treatments that have no randomized controlled trial support. Factor analysis suggested theoretically linked dimensions of treatment, but also dimensions that are common across models.
Tobin
David L
DL
Tufts University School of Medicine, Springfield, Massachusetts, USA. dvto2@aol.com
Banker
Judith D
JD
Weisberg
Laura
L
Bowers
Wayne
W
D001315:Australia; D001521:Behavior Therapy / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015928:Cognitive Behavioral Therapy / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D003625:Data Collection; D019348:Empiricism; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D001068:Feeding and Eating Disorders / Q000628:therapy*; D019983:Guideline Adherence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D008370:Manuals as Topic; D009656:North America; D011575:Psychoanalytic Therapy / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011613:Psychotherapy / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*