A randomised control trial of non-specific clinical management versus CBT in chronic anorexia nervosa

Funded Activity Summary

Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a serious mental illness that usually starts in adolescence and often runs a chronic course. With an estimated prevalence rate between 0.5% and 3.7% of women, and up to 50% remaining chronically ill, the illness poses a disproportionate burden on health and social services. AN has inpatient costs alone that exceed that for schizophrenia. Chronic AN has the highest mortality rate of any mental illness. Chronic AN patients are known for their ambivalence about engaging in treatment and poor motivation to change their eating disorder behaviours. They often fail to respond to traditional treatments and develop a history of negative treatment experiences and repeated treatment failures. A new approach is needed to reduce both the personal suffering and the burden of the illness on social and medical services. To date, there has been little scientific investigation into the development of specific treatment for those patients with chronic AN. This study will trial a recently manualised therapy - non-specific supportive clinical management - which initial evidence suggests may hold promise for chronic AN because it offers a more indirect, motivationally-matched approach. This treatment will be compared to the establishment therapy Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. Patients will be randomly allocated to one of the two treatment conditions and will receive 40 sessions over 12 months. They will be thoroughly assessed prior to during and after they have completed treatment and followed up for 6 months. This is the worlds first trial of a psychological treatment for chronic AN; it is hoped the study will establish an effective treatment for this debilitating and expensive illness. Further, as the project aims to explore the core, but often over-looked, feature of AN - poor motivation for recovery - it will also be in a position to shed light on the deep psychological processes that maintain this illness.

Funded Activity Details

Start Date: 01-01-2007

End Date: 01-01-2009

Funding Scheme: NHMRC Project Grants

Funding Amount: $555,843.00

Funder: National Health and Medical Research Council

Research Topics

ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)

Health, Clinical and Counselling Psychology

ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)

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Other Keywords

Anorexia | Anorexia Nervosa | Burden of disease | Chronic illness | Eating Disorders | Mental Health | Quality of life | quality of life

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