PSYCHOLOGICAL TREATMENTS AND BULIMIA-NERVOSA - AN UPDATE

This paper provides a brief overview of the diagnosis, prevalence, med ical and psychosocial side effects, and assessment of the dieting diso rder, bulimia nervosa. An update is given of the psychological treatme nt approaches: cognitive behavioural, behavioural, hypnobehavioural, p sychodynamic, psychoeducation, family therapy, and nutritional managem ent. Findings from uncontrolled and controlled clinical trials are sum marised, and we discuss some guidelines for clinical and research prac tice. Suggestions for further applied research include: developing an internationally agreed set of instruments to determine outcome, invest igating the mode of action of various treatments, focusing on newer in terventions, exploring the durability of shorter treatments, evaluatin g the effectiveness of less intense forms of treatment compared to mor e intense forms, determining which treatments match or suit certain pa tients, and exploring techniques to decrease attrition in treatment ou tcome research.