The Effectiveness of Online Group Dialectical Behavioral Therapy on Bulimia Nervosa

Summary

Bulimia Nervosa (BN) is a kind of chronic refractory mental disorder with high prevalence and relapse rate, which would cause serious damage to physical and mental health. Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) is an internationally effective and evidence-based therapy for BN patients. Previous studies have found that DBT group therapy can significantly improve the core symptoms of BN patients. Our research group has conducted DBT group therapy for BN, and found that after 12 weeks of treatment, the frequencies of binge eating and purging behavior of BN patients were significantly reduced. However, with the high cost of ground-based group therapy and low coverage, it is difficult to promote the G-DBT(Group Dialectical Behavioral Therapy) for BN, considering the shortage of mental health resource in China. Besides, videoconferencing-based psychotherapy has gradually emerged in recent years. However, there is still a lack of clinical studies on the videoconferencing-based G-DBT for BN at home and abroad to confirm its efficacy and feasibility. Therefore, this study intends to use a randomized controlled study by randomly allocating BN patients into videoconferencing-based G-DBT group and traditional G-DBT group for 12 weeks. By comparing the changes of core symptoms and psychological characteristics of BN patients before and after treatment, this study aims to illustrate the efficacy and feasibility of videoconferencing-based G-DBT is no less than traditional G-DBT.

Conditions

• Bulimia Nervosa

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Online Group Dialectical Behavioral Therapy

Online G-DBT is an adapted version of G-DBT delivered via video-conference. The specific design of G-DBT is the same as traditional face-to-face G-DBT. It also consists of 12 sessions, which is conducted weekly and lasts for 120 minutes. There are two therapists in charge of the therapy.

BEHAVIORAL

Face-to-face Group Dialectical Behavioral Therapy

The G-DBT consists of 12 sessions, each lasting 120 minutes, and is held once a week. Two DBT therapists lead the patients to learn mindfulness skills, emotion regulation skills, pain tolerance skills, and interpersonal effectiveness skills. The aim is to help the patients reduce binge eating and harmful behaviors by regulating their emotions. Each sessions is conducted in a face-to-face way, in the psychological therapy room of the outpatient clinic in Shanghai Mental Health Center.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Commission

  collaborator OTHER_GOV

• Shanghai Mental Health Center

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Jue Chen, PhD · Shanghai Mental Health Center

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

35 Years

Sex

FEMALE

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2020-12-01

Primary Completion

2022-11-30

Completion

2023-11-30

Countries

• China

Study Locations