A randomized controlled trial of an internet-based intervention for eating disorders

INTERVENTION: 1) Featback All participants in the Featback conditions will have access to the Featback website where comprehensive and general information on EDs can be found (i.e., psychoeducation). The psychoeducation will be purely self‐guided, meaning that participants are free to choose what to read and when. The monitoring and feedback system includes a weekly invitation by email to complete a monitoring questionnaire. This questionnaire consists of eight 4‐point Likert items assessing cognitive and behavioral correlates of the following four dimensions: 1) excessive concerns with body weight and shape, 2) unbalanced nutrition and dieting, 3) binge eating, and 4) compensatory behaviors. After completion, a supportive feedback message will be automatically generated according to a pre‐defined algorithm, which addresses their reported status (healthy or unhealthy range) and patterns of change (improved, deteriorated or unchanged) on each of the above‐mentioned dimensions. The messages contain a summary of self‐reported eating problems, psychoeducation and advice on how to counteract ED‐related symptoms, which are conveyed in a supportive and reinforcing way. 2) Support from an expert patient Expert patients (in Dutch ‘ervaringsdeskundigen’) are individuals with a lived ED experience, who have recovered completely and who, following recruitment and selection, have undergone specialized training to be able to use their knowledge and skills to help and support others understand and manage their ED symptoms. Participants can schedule a weekly appointment with an expert patient. For each session, participants can choose to receive support via chat or e‐mail. Chat sessions have a duration of 20 minutes and for e‐mail support participants are required to send an email before the scheduled appointment to which an expert patient will reply at the time of the appointment. All expert patients will undergo an intensive day of training. The fir CONDITION: Eating disorders, Intervention, E‐health, Expert patient ; ; PRIMARY OUTCOME: ED symptomatology as measured by the Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire (EDE‐Q). SECONDARY OUTCOME: Experienced Social Support (SSL‐12) ; ; Self‐Efficacy (GSES) ; ; Anxiety and Depression (PHQ‐4) ; ; Motivation to change ; ; Satisfaction with intervention ; ; Compliance ; ; Help seeking attitudes and behaviors INCLUSION CRITERIA: Eligible participants are aged 16 years or above, have access to the internet, have self‐reported ED symptoms as defined as scoring 52 or higher on the Weight Concern Scale (Killen et al., 1993) or report one or more of the following ED symptoms assessed by the Short Evaluation of Eating Disorders (SEED; Bauer, Winn, Schmidt & Kordy, 2005): a body mass index lower than or equal to 18.5, one or more binge eating episodes a week over the past four weeks, or one or more compensatory behaviors a week over the past four weeks.