Self-help and guided self-help for bulimia nervosa in primary care: A randomised control trial. [ 2000 - 2002 ]

Research Grant

Researchers: Prof Susan Paxton (Principal investigator)

Brief description Bulimia nervosa (BN) is a major health problem in Australian women with an estimated prevalence of 1.5%. It is frequently invisible, however as women with BN are often self-blaming, ashamed and reluctant to seek specialist help. Therapist led cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) for BN, while effective, is expensive and frequently difficult to access. This research aims to evaluate the effectiveness of two accessible and promising treatments: CBT self-help alone and guided CBT self-help treatment conducted in primary care in which the patient receives regular guidance from a general practitioner (GP). Women with BN from the community will be randomly assigned to one of 3 conditions: self-help alone, guided self-help or delayed treatment control and symptoms assessed before and after treatment. Patient characteristics associated with improvement will be examined. We anticipate patients in guided self-help will show greatest improvement, then those in the self-help alone treatment. This information will be extremely valuable in both Australia and internationally for a number of reasons. It is ethically inappropriate to recommend any treatment before it has been shown to be effective and a careful design such as the one proposed is the best way to determine treatment effectiveness. In addition, a treatment delivered in primary care is likely to be one of the most accessible within Australia?s health care system in which specialist services tend to be centralised. Further, it is essential to know which patients are likely to benefit from less resource intensive interventions. Finally, if GPs have at their disposal an effective, evidence based treatment for BN, they would be in an ideal position for secondary prevention. They are likely under these circumstances to be more alert to the symptoms of eating disorders and confident in their ability to manage them. If successful, this research will result in more widespread treatment of this disturbing disorder.

Funding Amount $AUD 206,113.83

Funding Scheme NHMRC Project Grants

Notes Standard Project Grant