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Effectiveness for Interpersonal Problem‐Solving is Reduced in Women with Binge Eating Disorder
Author(s) -
Svaldi Jennifer,
Dorn Christina,
Trentowska Monika
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
european eating disorders review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.511
H-Index - 67
eISSN - 1099-0968
pISSN - 1072-4133
DOI - 10.1002/erv.1050
Subject(s) - binge eating disorder , binge eating , psychology , eating disorders , interpersonal communication , mediation , overweight , clinical psychology , developmental psychology , obesity , social psychology , medicine , bulimia nervosa , political science , law
Objective Therapeutic programs for binge eating disorder (BED) often include the mediation of problem‐solving skills to deal with the desire to binge. In women with BED, problem‐solving abilities have not been studied yet. Knowing that reasons for binge episodes are often linked to interpersonal topics, we expected women with BED to have poorer problem‐solving abilities than healthy controls (HC). Methods Twenty‐five women with BED and 30 overweight HC were given a shortened version of the Means‐Ends Problem‐Solving Procedure (MEPS). Dependent variables were the number of relevant means, the effectiveness and the specificity of the generated solution. Results Generated solutions in the group of women with BED were significantly less effective and less specific compared to HC. Moreover, reduced effectiveness of interpersonal problem‐solving was related to increased binge frequency. Conclusions The results support the importance of teaching problem‐solving ability in individuals with BED to promote behaviour change. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and Eating Disorders Association.