New Research Published on Shame and Eating Disorder Treatment
New Research Published on Shame and Eating Disorder Treatment
Staff at CCI have recently published several new research articles in peer-reviewed journals, sharing important updates about treatment for psychological disorders with our clients. One particularly important study looked at how shame may affect eating disorder treatment outcomes. Shame is a powerful self-conscious emotion that is often experienced by people with eating disorders. We sought to understand whether how much shame someone is feeling before they start treatment is related to the gains they experience in treatment for eating disorders. At CCI, one of our core treatments for eating disorders is cognitive-behavioural therapy for eating disorders, or CBT-ED.
There were three key findings. First, shame reduced substantially during CBT-ED even though it was not the main focus of treatment. Second, people who felt more shame were just as likely to complete treatment as people with less shame. Third, people with lower shame before treatment tended to have a slightly larger improvement in their eating disorder symptoms during treatment.
These findings tell us that having higher levels of shame does not mean that someone will not benefit from eating disorder treatment! The positive effects for people with high levels of shame were still very large. However, it might be worth considering how we can specifically target shame to make our treatments even more effective for clients who have higher levels of shame.
Article details:
The contribution of shame to eating disorder treatment outcomes in a community mental health clinic.
Samantha Kenny, David Erceg-Hurn, Kate Tonta, Bronwyn Raykos, Bruce Campbell, and Peter McEvoy.
International Journal of Eating Disorders
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/eat.24248
Last Updated:
14/10/2024