Binge eaters who stopped bingeing lost 13.6 lbs in five months

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Wednesday, August 10, 2005 9:22 am Email this article
Binge eaters who stopped their binge eating with the help of therapy lost an average of 13.6 pounds in five months compared to a weight gain of 1.5 pounds for those who did not stop according to a study from the New York State Psychiatric Institute. Half of patients stopped bingeing

Roughly half of the patients (54) abstained from bingeing, and the other half (62) did not.

Group therapy plus individual therapy and / or Prozac

All patients received 16 group sessions on behavioral weight control over the five months, and were also randomly assigned to receive one of four additional treaments: individual cognitive behavioral therapy and Prozac (fluoxetine), individual cognitive behavioral therapy and a placebo, Prozac (fluoxetine) alone, or a placebo alone.

Individual therapy improved the outcome

Giving patients individual cognitive behavioral therapy improved their bingeing according to the paper.

Prozac improved depression, but not bingeing

Prozac (fluoxetine) improved patient’s depression, but apparently did not significantly increase the number of patients who stopped bingeing.

REFERENCE

Devlin MJ, Goldfein J, Petkova E, Jiang H, Raizman PS, Wolk S, Mayer L, Carino J, Bellace D, Kamenetz C, Dobrow I, Walsh B. Cognitive behavioral therapy and fluoxetine as adjuncts to group behavioral therapy for binge eating disorder. Obes Res. 2005 Jun, 13(6):1077-88.

AUTHOR’S CONTACT INFORMATION

M. J. Devlin
New York State Psychiatric Institute, Unit 116
1051 Riverside Drive
New York, NY 10032, USA
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Articles on the same subject can be found here:

• Binge Eating

• Prozac (fluoxetine)