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.
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