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NEDA TOOLKIT for Parents Treatments Defined Antidepressants Prescription drugs used for treatment of eating disorders and aimed at alleviating major depression, anxiety, or obsessive-compulsive disorder, which often coexist with an eating disorder. Behavior Therapy (BT) A type of psychotherapy that uses principles of learning to increase the frequency of desired behaviors and/or decrease the frequency of problem behaviors. Subtypes of BT include dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), exposure and response prevention (ERP), and hypnobehavioral therapy. Cognitive Therapy (CT) A type of psychotherapeutic treatment that attempts to change a patient’s feelings and behaviors by changing the way the patient thinks about or perceives his/her significant life experiences. Subtypes include cognitive analytic therapy and cognitive orientation therapy. Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT) A type of cognitive therapy that focuses its attention on discovering how a patient’s problems have evolved and how the procedures the patient has devised to cope with them may be ineffective or even harmful. CAT is designed to enable people to gain an understanding of how the difficulties they experience may be made worse by their habitual coping mechanisms. Problems are understood in the light of a person’s personal history and life experiences. The focus is on recognizing how these coping procedures originated and how they can be adapted. Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) CBT is a goal- oriented, short-term treatment that addresses the psychological, familial, and societal factors associated with eating disorders. Therapy is centered on the principle that there are both behavioral and attitudinal disturbances regarding eating, weight, and shape. Cognitive Orientation Therapy (COT) A type of cognitive therapy that uses a systematic procedure to understand the meaning of a patient’s behavior by exploring certain themes such as aggression and avoidance. The procedure for modifying behavior then focuses on systematically changing the patient’s beliefs related to the themes, not beliefs that refer directly to eating behavior. Cognitive Remediation Therapy (CRT) Since patients with anorexia nervosa (AN) have a tendency to get trapped in detail rather than seeing the big picture, and have difficulty shifting thinking among perspectives, this newly investigated brief psychotherapeutic approach targets these specific thinking styles and their role in the development and maintenance of an eating disorder. Currently, it’s usually conducted side by side with other forms of psychotherapies. Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) A type of behavioral therapy that views emotional deregulation as the core problem in eating disorders. It involves teaching people new skills to regulate negative emotions and replace dysfunctional behavior. (See also Behavioral Therapy.) Equine/Animal-assisted Therapy A treatment program in which people interact with horses and become aware of their own emotional states through the reactions of the horse to their behavior. Exercise Therapy An individualized exercise plan that is written by a doctor or rehabilitation specialist, such as a clinical exercise physiologist, physical therapist, or nurse. The plan takes into account an individual’s current medical condition and provides advice for what type of exercise to perform, how hard to exercise, how long, and how many times per week. Exposure with Response Prevention (ERP ) A type of behavior therapy strategy that is based on the theory that purging serves to decrease the anxiety associated with eating. Purging is therefore negatively reinforced via anxiety reduction. The goal of ERP is to modify the association between anxiety and purging by preventing purging following eating until the anxiety associated with eating subsides.(See also Behavioral Therapy.) Expressive Therapy A nondrug, nonpsychotherapy form of treatment that uses the performing and/or visual arts to help people express their thoughts and emotions. Whether through dance, movement, art, drama, drawing, painting, etc., expressive therapy provides an opportunity for communication that might otherwise remain repressed. Page | 27