Effectiveness of psychosocial interventions in eating disorders: an overview of Cochrane systematic reviews

REVIEW Effectiveness of psychosocial interventions in eating disorders: an overview of Cochrane systematic reviews Efetividade de intervenções psicossociais em transtornos alimentares: um panorama das revisões sistemáticas Cochrane Marcelle Barrueco Costa1, Tamara Melnik1 ABSTRACT RESUMO Eating disorders are psychiatric conditions originated from and perpetuated by individual, family and sociocultural factors. The psychosocial approach to treatment and prevention of relapse is crucial. To present an overview of the scientific evidence on effectiveness of psychosocial interventions in treatment of eating disorders. All systematic reviews published by the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews - Cochrane Library on the topic were included. Afterwards, as from the least recent date of these reviews (2001), an additional search was conducted at PubMed with sensitive search strategy and with the same keywords used. A total of 101 primary studies and 30 systematic reviews (5 Cochrane systematic reviews), meta-analysis, guidelines or narrative reviews of literature were included. The main outcomes were: symptomatic remission, body image, cognitive distortion, psychiatric comorbidity, psychosocial functioning and patient satisfaction. The cognitive behavioral approach was the most effective treatment, especially for bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder and the night eating syndrome. For anorexia nervosa, the family approach showed greater effectiveness. Other effective approaches were interpersonal psychotherapy, dialectic behavioral therapy, support therapy and self-help manuals. Moreover, there was an increasing number of preventive and promotional approaches that addressed individual, family and social risk factors, being promising for the development of positive self-image and self-efficacy. Further studies are required to evaluate the impact of multidisciplinary approaches on all eating disorders, as well as the cost-effectiveness of some effective modalities, such as the cognitive behavioral therapy. Transtornos alimentares são doenças psiquiátricas originadas de e perpetuadas por fatores individuais, familiares e socioculturais. A abordagem psicossocial é essencial para o tratamento e a prevenção de recaídas. Apresentar uma visão geral das evidências científicas sobre a efetividade das intervenções psicossociais no tratamento de transtornos alimentares. Foram incluídas todas as revisões sistemáticas publicadas no Banco de Dados de Revisões Sistemáticas da Cochrane Library. Posteriormente, a partir da data menos recente destas revisões (2001), realizou-se uma busca adicional no PubMed, com estratégia de busca sensibilizada e com os mesmos descritores utilizados antes. No total, foram incluídos 101 estudos primários e 30 revisões sistemáticas (5 revisões sistemáticas da Cochrane), metanálises, diretrizes ou revisões narrativas da literatura. Os principais desfechos foram remissão de sintomas, imagem corporal, distorção cognitiva, comorbidade psiquiátrica, funcionamento psicossocial e satisfação do paciente. A abordagem cognitivo-comportamental foi o tratamento mais efetivo, principalmente para bulimia nervosa, transtorno da compulsão alimentar periódica e síndrome do comer noturno. Para anorexia nervosa, a abordagem familiar demonstrou maior efetividade. Outras abordagens efetivas foram psicoterapia interpessoal, terapia comportamental dialética, terapia de apoio e manuais de autoajuda. Além disso, houve um número crescente de abordagens preventivas e promocionais que contemplaram fatores de risco individuais, familiares e sociais, sendo promissoras para o desenvolvimento da autoimagem positiva e autoeficácia. São necessários mais estudos que avaliem o impacto de abordagens multidisciplinares em todos transtornos alimentares, além da relação custo-efetividade de algumas modalidades efetivas, como a terapia cognitivo-comportamental. Keywords: Eating disorders; Evidence-based medicine Descritores: Transtornos alimentares; Medicina baseada em evidências 1 Universidade Federal de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil; Centro Cochrane do Brasil, São Paulo, SP, Brazil. Corresponding author: Marcelle Barrueco Costa – Centro Cochrane do Brasil – Rua Borges Lagoa, 564, room 63, building Espaço São Paulo – Vila Clementino – Zip code: 04038-000 – São Paulo, SP, Brazil – Phone: (55 11) 5575-2970 – E-mail: Received on: Mar 27, 2014 − Accepted on: May 21, 2015 DOI: 10.1590/S1679-45082016RW3120 This content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. einstein. 2016;14(2):235-77 236 Costa MB, Melnik T INTRODUCTION The eating disorders have specific diagnoses, including anorexia nervosa (AN), bulimia nervosa (BN) and binge eating disorder (BED).(1) However, subclinical forms are more frequent across all age groups.(2-4) Along with subclinical forms, BED is more common than AN and BN, and due to its specific clinical manifestation and strong association with obesity, it is classified as a diagnostic category in fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V).(1-3,5) The prevalence of BED in the United States within the period of 12 months is 1.6% for women and 0.8% for men.(1) The prevalence between genders in BED is more similar than AN or BN, which predominate in young females.(1) The 12-month prevalence of AN in these women is approximately 0.4%, and of BN varies from 1 to 1.5%.(1) AN is characterized by restriction of energy intake relative to requirements, leading to a significantly low body weight; intense fear of gaining weight or of becoming fat, or persistent behavior that interferes with weight gain; disturbance in the way in which one’s body weight or shape is experienced, undue influence of body weight or shape on self-evaluation, or persistent lack of recognition of the seriousness of the current low body weight.(1) BN is characterized by repetitive episodes of binge eating (eating an amount of food that is definitely larger than what most individuals would eat in a similar period of time under similar circumstances with a sense of lack of control), followed by compensatory behaviors (vomiting, laxative use, and excessive physical activity) in an attempt to undo the excessive intake of food, as well as a disturbance in the perception of shape and weight, like in AN.(1) These episodes occur at least twice a week for a minimum period of 3 months.(1) In BED, the same episodes occur with similar frequency and duration, but patients do not generally have regular compensatory behaviors to combat excessive consumption of food and often present with overweight or obesity.(1) The other specified eating disorder category includes other eating symptoms that result in clinically significant distress or impairment in social functioning, but do not meet the full criteria for the three categories mentioned above (AN, BN and BED). This category includes atypical AN (all criteria, except low body weight); BN of l (...truncated)