Cognitive Remediation Therapy in Anorexia Nervosa

Summary

"Clinicians from the Maudsley (IoP, London, UK) have specifically tailored a cognitive remediation therapy (CRT) for treating Anorexia Nervosa (AN). It is an intensive manualised training cognitive therapy which addresses the difficulties in flexibility and holistic processing that have been incriminated in AN. CRT has been found to improve AN's neuropsychological functioning and short term outcome. To our knowledge, no French speaking country has tested its effectiveness. Moreover, the question whether it is efficient for both anorexic restrictive and anorexic binge-purging patients remains unanswered.

The aim of the present study is to determine if CRT in AN adolescents and young adults has a favourable impact on cognitive functioning and clinical status. We will also explore whether the impact of CRT is similar in both anorexic restrictive and binge-purging subtypes. There will also be an Historical Control Group of patients, sixty, who received traditional medical interventions in a specialized inpatient unit for eating disorders (i.e., EVHAN study)."

Conditions

• Teenager
• Young Adult
• Hospitalized
• Anorexia Nervosa (DSM-IV Revised Criteria)

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Cognitive Remediation Therapy

Cognitive remediation therapy (CRT) is an intensive training cognitive therapy that encourages people to reflect on and try to modify the way they think, with a particular focus on improving cognitive flexibility. It is a manualised therapist-led intervention consisting of multiple versions of a variety of tasks and mental exercises that address the difficulties in flexibility and holistic processing. CRT is an individual 10-sessions long program (2 sessions per week).

BEHAVIORAL

Sham Therapy

The Sham therapy (ST) has been designed to match the CRT format: an individual manualised therapist-led 10-sessions long program (2 sessions per week). ST sessions have been designed so as to avoid set-shifting and central coherence training. Rather, ST is a manualised sham intervention consisting of multiple exercises on 3 domains: soft physical activity, emotional expression recognition and interpersonal functioning.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Institut National de la Santé Et de la Recherche Médicale, France

  collaborator OTHER_GOV

• Assistance Publique - Hôpitaux de Paris

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Sylvie BERTHOZ, PhD · Institut National de la Santé Et de la Recherche Médicale, France

• Damien RINGUENET, MD · Assistance Publique - Hôpitaux de Paris

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

15 Years

Max Age

40 Years

Sex

FEMALE

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2012-10-31

Primary Completion

2016-06-30

Completion

2017-01-31

Countries

• France

Study Locations