• DOI:10.1002/eat.20879
• Corpus ID: 6928371

The long-term efficacy of three psychotherapies for anorexia nervosa: a randomized, controlled trial.

@article{Carter2011TheLE,
  title={The long-term efficacy of three psychotherapies for anorexia nervosa: a randomized, controlled trial.},
  author={Frances A. Carter and Jennifer Jordan and Virginia Mcintosh and Suzanne E. Luty and Janice M. Mckenzie and Chris Frampton and Cynthia M. Bulik and Peter R. Joyce},
  journal={The International journal of eating disorders},
  year={2011},
  volume={44 7},
  pages={
          647-54
        }
}

• F. Carter, J. Jordan, +5 authors P. Joyce
• Published 1 November 2011
• Psychology, Medicine
• The International journal of eating disorders

OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the long-term efficacy of three psychotherapies for anorexia nervosa.

METHOD
Participants were women with broadly defined anorexia nervosa who had participated in a RCT comparing specialized psychotherapies (cognitive behavior therapy, CBT, and interpersonal psychotherapy, IPT) with a control condition (specialist supportive clinical management, SSCM), and attended long-term follow-up assessment (mean 6.7 years ± 1.2).

RESULTS
Forty three of the original sample of 56 women participated in long-term follow-up assessment (77%). No significant differences were found on any pre-selected primary, secondary or tertiary outcome measures among the three psychotherapies at long-term follow-up assessment. Significantly different patterns of recovery were identified for the psychotherapies across time on the primary global outcome measure. Although SSCM was associated with a more rapid response than IPT, by follow-up all three treatments were indistinguishable.

DISCUSSION
Potential implications for the timing of interventions to improve treatment response in anorexia nervosa are critically examined.