iCBT for Bulimia – Review of literature

Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is the most studied form of psychotherapy and is also considered the “gold standard” and the evidence-based treatment of choice for treatment of bulimia (BN). Internet-based delivery expands the reach of CBT and addresses several barriers associated with face-to-face treatments.

The existing literature on internet-based treatment for BN was reviewed. Nine studies using iCBT including patients with diagnoses of BN or subthreshold BN/EDNOS-BN were examined in detail. The sample sizes ranged from 62 to 214 adult, predominantly female participants. The average age of the participants ranged from 22.3 to 35.5 years. All studies used different iCBT programs varying between 8 weeks and 7 months. The follow-up periods varied from end of the treatment to 18 months. Dropout rates averaged from 5% during treatment to 49 % at follow-up.

Based on the reviewed studies, iCBT seems to have meaningful clinical efficacy and can be seen as a probably efficacious treatment for treating adults with BN or subthreshold BN. Although promising, the results must be interpreted with caution since there are several methodological limitations: the limited amount of studies implementing various methods and programs labeled under the same term of iCBT and using a variety of assessment methods. The comparability of these results is unclear. In summary, the empirical evidence for the effectiveness is still limited.

Katarina Meskanen: Guided Internet-delivered Computer-assisted Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (iCBT) for Bulimia Nervosa (BN) – Review of literature

Kognitiivis-integratiivinen yksilöpsykoterapian koulutusohjelma 2018-2021