CBT-Eb Plus EMDR Versus CBT-Eb in Patients With Eating Disorders

Enhanced CBT (CBT-E) is an effective treatment for the majority of outpatients with an eating disorder; however in about 30% of patients remission is made difficult. This may be due to the concomitant presence of trauma. Therefore we expect that a combination of CBT-E and EMDR, which is the evidence based treatment for PTSD disorder, would enhance the remission probability. This trial has a parallel group randomized controlled design. All patients who will enter in contact with the Regional Reference Centre for Eating Disorders in Verona and will satisfy inclusion criteria will be randomized to the broad form of CBT-E (CBT-Eb) plus EMDR or CBT-Eb alone. Patients will be evaluated before the treatment, at the end of treatment and after 6 months post-treatment with a set of standardized measure to assess eating disorder symptoms and other possible predisposing and moderating factors. The efficacy of CBT-E vs CBT-E + EMDR will be evaluated at the end of the treatment and after 6 months in terms of global score of the Eating Disorder Examination. Moreover the changes in other secondary outcomes will be considered. This explorative study may suggest new hypothesis for larger RCTs in order to increase the knowledge on ED.