Binge-eating adolescent treatment (BEAT) – findings from a pilot study on effects and acceptance of a blended treatment program for youth with loss of control eating

BACKGROUND: Loss of Control Eating (LOC) is the most prevalent form of eating disorder pathology in youth, but research on evidence-based treatment in this group remains scarce.

We assessed for the first time the effects and acceptance of a blended treatment program for youth between 14 and 24 years with LOC (Binge-eating Adolescent Treatment, BEAT).

METHODS: Twenty-four youths (mean age 19.1 years) participated in an active treatment of nine-weeks including three face-to-face workshops and six weekly email-guided self-help sessions, followed by four email guided follow-up sessions, one, three, six and 12 months after the active treatment.

All patients completed a two-weeks waiting-time period before treatment begin (within-subject waitlist control design).

RESULTS: The number of weekly LOC episodes substantially decreased during both the waiting-time (effect size d = 0.45) and the active treatment (d = 1.01) period and remained stable during the subsequent 12-months follow-up (d = 0.20).

The proportion of patients with full-threshold binge-eating disorder (BED) diagnoses decreased and transformed into LOC during the study course, while the abstainer rate of LOC increased.

Values for depressive symptoms (d = 1.5), eating disorder pathology (d = 1.29) and appearance-based rejection sensitivity (d = 0.68) all improved on average from pretreatment to posttreatment and remained stable or further improved during follow-up (d between 0.11 and 0.85).

Body weight in contrast remained constant within the same period.

Treatment satisfaction among completers was high, but so was the dropout rate of 45.8% at the end of the 12-months follow-up.

CONCLUSIONS: This first blended treatment study BEAT might be well suited to decrease core symptoms of LOC, depressive symptoms and appearance-based rejection sensitivity.

More research is needed to establish readily accessible interventions targeted more profoundly at age-salient maintaining factors such as appearance-based rejection sensitivity, while at the same time keeping dropout rates at a low level.

TRIAL REGISTRATION: The trial was registered at the German Clinical Trials Register (ID: DRKS00014580; registration date: 21/06/2018).