A sizeable body of research has documented Expressed Emotion (EE) to predict clinical outcomes in various psychiatric disorders, including eating disorders. Patients’ perceptions of relative’s EE, however, were found to play an important role in the processing of EE. This study aimed to examine the level of perceived EE in adolescent binge-eating disorder (BED) and its impact on eating disorder psychopathology. Adolescents (12 – 20 years) seeking treatment for BED (n = 40) were compared to adolescents without current or lifetime eating disorder (CG; n = 40). Both groups were stratified according to age, sex, body mass index (BMI, kg/m2), and socio-economic status. The Five Minute Speech Sample (FMSS) and the Brief Dyadic Scale of EE were administered to assess patients’ perceived maternal EE. Additionally, adolescents and mothers completed questionnaires on eating disorder and general psychopathology. On the FMSS, 37.5% of patients with BED perceived their mothers as high EE (vs. 12.5% in the CG). On the Brief Dyadic Scale of EE, patients with BED reported significantly higher levels of perceived maternal criticism, emotional overinvolvement, and lower levels of perceived warmth than controls. After controlling for the diagnosis of BED, perceived criticism and warmth, as assessed by questionnaire, significantly explained adolescents’ global eating disorder psychopathology. Negative perceptions of maternal behavior and emotional atmosphere towards the child are characteristic of adolescent BED. As documented for other eating disorders, family factors are likely to have substantial implications for the maintenance and treatment of adolescent BED.

Background: Binge-eating disorder (BED) as a distinct eating disorder category and night eating syndrome (NES) as a form of Other Specified Feeding or Eating Disorders were recently included in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5). Objectives: This study sought to investigate the prevalence of BED and NES and associations with various forms of non-normative eating behavior and psychopathology in prebariatric patients. Setting: Within a consecutive multicenter registry study, patients in six bariatric surgery centers in Germany were recruited. Methods: Overall, 233 prebariatric patients were assessed using the Eating Disorder Examination and self-report questionnaires. Assessment was unrelated to clinical procedures. Results: Diagnostic criteria for full-syndrome BED and NES were currently met by 4.3% and 8.2% of prebariatric patients, respectively. In addition, 8.6% and 6.9% of patients met subsyndromal BED and NES criteria, respectively. Comorbid BED and NES diagnoses were present in 3.9% of patients. In comparison to patients without any eating disorder symptoms, patients with BED and NES reported greater emotional eating, eating in the absence of hunger, and more symptoms of food addiction. Moreover, differences between patients with BED and NES emerged with more objective binge eating episodes and higher levels of eating concern, weight concern, and global eating disorder psychopathology in patients with BED. Conclusions: BED and NES were shown to be prevalent among prebariatric patients, with some degree of overlap between diagnoses. Associations with non-normative eating behavior and psychopathology point to their clinical significance and discriminant validity.

This study sought to examine risk and onset patterns in anorexia nervosa (AN), bulimia nervosa (BN), and binge eating disorder (BED). Women with AN (n=71), BN (n=66), BED (n=160) and non-psychiatric controls (n=323) were compared retrospectively on risk factors, symptom onset, and diagnostic migration. Eating disorder groups reported greater risk exposure than non-psychiatric controls. AN and BED differed on premorbid personality/behavioral problems, childhood obesity, and family overeating. Risk factors for BN were shared with AN and BED. Dieting was the most common onset symptom in AN, whereas binge eating was most common in BN and BED. Migration between AN and BED was rare, but more frequent between AN and BN and between BN and BED. AN and BED have distinct risk factors and onset patterns, while BN shares similar risk factors and onset patterns with both AN and BED. Results should inform future classification schemes and prevention programs.

Hintergrund. Für die durch wiederkehrende Essanfälle gekennzeichnete Binge Eating-Störung (BES) wurde die Kognitive Verhaltenstherapie (KVT) als Behandlungsmethode der Wahl etabliert. Zum Psychotherapieprozess, welcher das Therapieergebnis beeinflusst, ist jedoch wenig bekannt. Fragestellung. Da Untersuchungen zum Prozessaspekt der therapeutischen Adhärenz Unterschiede zwischen Patienten eines Therapeuten sowie zwischen verschiedenen Therapeuten belegen, soll der Einfluss von Patienten- und Therapeutenmerkmalen auf die therapeutische Adhärenz geprüft werden. Methode. In einer prospektiven, multizentrischen, randomisiert-kontrollierten Behandlungsstudie zum Wirksamkeitsvergleich von KVT und Internet-basierter angeleiteter Selbsthilfe (INTERBED) wurde die therapeutische Adhärenz in der KVT durch unabhängige Rater erfasst. Patienten- und Therapeutenmerkmale wurden mittels Interview und Selbstbericht erhoben. Ergebnisse. Soziodemografische Merkmale wie ein geringeres Bildungsniveau der Patienten und weibliches Geschlecht der Therapeuten wurden als signifikante Prädiktoren einer höheren therapeutischen Adhärenz identifiziert. Störungsspezifische Merkmale der Patienten waren nicht mit der therapeutischen Adhärenz assoziiert. Therapeutenmerkmale wie ein geringerer Ausbildungsgrad, eine geringere erlebte therapeutische Kompetenz und höhere Erwartungen sowie ein höheres emotionales Wohlbefinden der Therapeuten sagten eine höhere therapeutische Adhärenz vorher. Diskussion. Die etablierte hohe therapeutische Adhärenz erschien unabhängig vom Patienten, während einige Therapeutenmerkmale als Prädiktoren identifiziert wurden. Ungünstige Einflüsse auf die therapeutische Adhärenz bedürfen weiterer Erforschung und einer stärkeren Berücksichtigung in der Ausbildung von Therapeuten. / Background. Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) has been established as the treatment of choice for binge-eating disorder (BED) which is characterized by recurrent binge eating episodes. However, only little is known about the impact of the psychotherapeutic process on treatment outcomes. Objectives. While studies concerning the process aspect of therapist adherence found differences between patients from one therapist as well as differences between therapists, the impact of patient and therapist characteristics on therapist adherence will be investigated. Methods. In a prospective multicenter randomized-controlled trial comparing CBT to Internet-based guided self-help (INTERBED), the therapist adherence to CBT was determined by independent raters. Patient and therapist characteristics were obtained via interview and self-report questionnaires. Results. Sociodemographic characteristics including lower education in patients and female sex in therapists were identified as predictors of higher therapist adherence. Disorder-specific characteristics of patients were not associated with the therapist adherence. Therapist characteristics including less postgraduate therapist training, lower self-rated therapeutic competence, and higher expectations as well as higher emotional well-being of therapists predicted higher therapist adherence. Conclusions. The high level of therapist adherence was mostly independent from patients, while some therapist characteristics were identified as predictors. Adverse impacts on therapist adherence should be investigated further and might be considered in therapeutic training.

Objective: Loss of control (LOC) eating is a salient indicator of eating disorder psychopathology in adolescents and is associated with marked distress. While research has focused on the relevance of episode size, clinical significance of LOC eating frequency has rarely been explored. Therefore, this study aimed at identifying LOC eating prevalence with respect to its recurrence and associated variables in a community-based sample. Method: Participants were 1643 adolescents, aged 12-20 years (62.4% female). Based on EDE-Q self-report, participants were categorized as those reporting recurrent (N = 156; 9.5%), non-recurrent (N = 226; 13.8%) and no LOC eating (N = 1261; 76.7%). Results: Adolescents with recurrent LOC eating reported clinically relevant and significantly greater eating disorder psychopathology, functional impairment and distress because of LOC eating, and a significantly higher body mass index (BMI, kg/m2) than adolescents with non-recurrent and those without LOC eating. Discussion: These results underline that LOC eating is a common eating behavior among adolescents in the community associated with clinical characteristics of eating disorders, and could therefore be a risk factor for developing full- or partial-syndrome eating disorders. Further research on the classification of eating disorders in adolescents with LOC eating and severity indicators is warranted.

Essstörungen sind prävalente psychische Störungen mit schwerwiegenden, oftmals langfristigen Auswirkungen auf die psychische und körperliche Gesundheit. Eine zunehmende Anzahl von klinischen Studien dokumentiert die Wirksamkeit verschiedener psychotherapeutischer Ansätze für spezifische Essstörungen. Im vorliegenden Themenheft 5 werden die Wirksamkeit von neuen Ansätzen zur Einzeltherapie und zur internet-basierten Rückfallprophylaxe, die Patientensicht auf die Therapie sowie die Relevanz von Faktoren des therapeutischen Prozesses bei verschiedenen Essstörungen beleuchtet. Weiterer Forschungsbedarf besteht insbesondere hinsichtlich des Prozesses und der Dissemination evidenzbasierter Psychotherapie für Essstörungen. / Eating disorders are prevalent psychiatric disorders with severe and longstanding 15 implications for mental and physical health. An increasing number of clinical studies documents the efficacy of certain psychotherapeutic approaches for specific eating disorders. This special issue addresses the efficacy of novel approaches in face-to-face individual therapy and Internet-based relapse prevention, patient views of treatment, and the relevance of therapeutic process factors for diverse eating disorders. Further research is particularly 20 warranted regarding the process and dissemination of evidence-based psychotherapy for eating disorders.

Objective: For eating disorders, a vast number of investigations have demonstrated the efficacy of psychological treatments. However, evidence supporting the impact of therapeutic process aspects on outcome (i.e., process-outcome research) has not been disentangled. Method: Using the Generic Model of Psychotherapy (GMP) to organize various process aspects, a systematic literature search was conducted on psychological treatment studies for anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge-eating disorder, and eating disorders not otherwise specified. Results: Improved outcomes resulted for family-based treatment compared to individual treatment, for individual compared to group treatment, booster sessions, and positive patient expectations (GMP contract aspect); for nutritional counseling and exercising but not exposure with response prevention as adjunct interventions (therapeutic operations); for highly motivated patients and, to a lesser extent, for therapeutic alliance (therapeutic bond); as well as for rapid response and longer overall treatment duration (temporal patterns). Regarding other GMP aspects, studies on self-relatedness were completely lacking and in-session impacts were rarely investigated. Discussion: As most studies assessed only a limited number of process aspects, the ability to draw conclusions about their overall impact regarding outcome is rather limited. Therefore, future process-outcome research is needed beyond investigations of treatment efficacy for eating disorders.

While cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is the most well-established treatment for binge-eating disorder (BED), little is known about process factors influencing its outcome. The present study sought to explore the assessment of therapist adherence, its course over treatment, and its associations with patient and therapist characteristics, and the therapeutic alliance. In a prospective multicenter randomized-controlled trial comparing CBT to internet-based guided self-help (INTERBED-study), therapist adherence using the newly developed Adherence Control Form (ACF) was determined by trained raters in randomly selected 418 audio-taped CBT sessions of 89 patients (25% of all sessions). Observer-rated therapeutic alliance, interview-based and self-reported patient and therapist characteristics were assessed. Three-level multilevel modeling was applied. The ACF showed adequate psychometric properties. Therapist adherence was excellent. While significant between-therapist variability in therapist adherence was found, within-therapist variability was non-significant. Patient and therapist characteristics did not predict the therapist adherence. The therapist adherence positively predicted the therapeutic alliance. The ACF demonstrated its utility to assess therapist adherence in CBT for BED. The excellent levels of therapist adherence point to the internal validity of the CBT within the INTERBED-study serving as a prerequisite for empirical comparisons between treatments. Variability between therapists should be addressed in therapist trainings and dissemination trials.

To evaluate psychological treatments for adolescent binge-eating disorder (BED), reliable information on therapeutic process factors is needed. This study examines therapist adherence and therapeutic alliance and their associations in cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) for adolescents with BED. In a randomised-controlled efficacy trial, adherence and alliance were objectively determined based on 247 audio-taped CBT sessions from a sample of N = 64 adolescents with BED. Variability of adherence and alliance, explained by treatment module, patient, and therapist were examined using multilevel modeling. Although adherence and alliance were excellent and unaffected by treatment module and therapist, there was significant between-patient variability for both concepts. Adherence was negatively associated with patient's treatment expectation. Alliance was negatively associated with the number of loss of control eating episodes and positively associated with adherence. Excellent adherence supported the internal validity of CBT for adolescent BED. Associations between process factors and patient characteristics demand adequate supervision in CBT.

To provide a comprehensive meta-analysis on the efficacy of psychological and medical treatments for binge-eating disorder (BED), including those targeting weight loss. Method: Through a systematic search before March 2018, 81 published and unpublished randomized-controlled trials (RCTs), totaling 7,515 individuals with BED (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-Fourth Edition [DSM–IV] and Fifth Edition [DSM–5]), were retrieved and analyzed using random-effect modeling. Results: In RCTs with inactive control groups, psychotherapy, mostly consisting of cognitive-behavioral therapy, showed large-size effects for the reduction of binge-eating episodes and abstinence from binge eating, followed by structured self-help treatment with medium-to-large effects when compared with wait-list. Pharmacotherapy and pharmacological weight loss treatment mostly outperformed pill placebo conditions with small effects on binge-eating outcome. These results were confirmed for the most common treatments of cognitive-behavioral therapy, self-help treatment based on cognitive-behavioral therapy, and lisdexamfetamine. In RCTs with active control groups, there was limited evidence for the superiority of one treatment category or treatment. In a few studies, psychotherapy outperformed behavioral weight loss treatment in short- and long-term binge-eating outcome and led to lower longer-term abstinence than self-help treatment, while combined treatment revealed no additive effect on binge-eating outcome over time. Overall study quality was heterogeneous and the quality of evidence for binge-eating outcome was generally very low. Conclusions: This comprehensive meta-analysis demonstrated the efficacy of psychotherapy, structured self-help treatment, and pharmacotherapy for patients with BED. More high quality research on treatments for BED is warranted, with a focus on long-term maintenance of therapeutic gains, comparative efficacy, mechanisms through which treatments work, and complex models of care.