Neural Response to Food Stimuli: fMRI Changes Following Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Binge Eating Disorder

March 23, 2023 updated by: University of Pennsylvania
The purpose of this research is to conduct a randomized controlled trial (RCT) assessing the impact of CBT on neural responses to binge eating stimuli.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Females with a BMI>/=25 kg/m2 and BED will be randomized to either a 16-week, one-on-one CBT intervention (n=20) or a waitlist control (WL; n=20). Both groups will have blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans at baseline and after the 16-week intervention. During the scans, participants will complete the following tasks: 1) food-specific stop signal task (SST), and 2) script-driven imagery of binge foods.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

40

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

    • Pennsylvania
      • Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, 19104
        • University of Pennsylvania

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years to 45 years (Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  1. Women who meet the DSM-5 criteria for BED as diagnosed by the Eating Disorder Examination Interview
  2. Ages 18 to 45 years of age
  3. BMI >/=25 kg/m2
  4. Premenopausal
  5. Able to provide informed consent
  6. Right-handed
  7. Eligible female patients will be:

    • Non-pregnant, evidenced by a negative urine dipstick pregnancy test
    • Non-lactating
    • Surgically sterile or postmenopausal, or they will agree to continue to use an accepted method of birth control during the study
  8. Understand and be willing to comply with all study-related procedures and agree to participate in the study by giving written informed consent

Exclusion Criteria:

  1. Weight > 158.8 kg (350 lbs, due to scanner weight restrictions)
  2. Supine abdominal width (with arms folded above) > 70 cm or sagittal diameter > 50 cm (due to scanner dimension restrictions)
  3. Pregnant or nursing (or plans to become pregnant in the next 5 months)
  4. Evidence of psychiatric disorder that significantly interferes with daily living
  5. Active suicidal ideation
  6. Type 1 diabetes or type 2 diabetes or A1C > 6.5%
  7. Use of weight loss medications or other agents known to affect body weight (e.g., oral glucocorticoids, second-generation antipsychotic medications) in the past 3 months
  8. Psychiatric hospitalization within the past 6 months
  9. Self-reported alcohol or substance abuse within the past 12 months, including at-risk drinking (current consumption of ≥ 14 alcoholic drinks per week)
  10. Self-reported use of illicit drugs within the past 30 days
  11. Presence or history of orthopedic circumstances, metallic inserts, pacemaker, claustrophobia, or other conditions that may interfere with magnetic resonance imaging
  12. Loss of ≥ 10 lb of body weight within the past 3 months
  13. History of (or plans for) bariatric surgery
  14. Visual, auditory, or other impairment that would affect task performance
  15. Epilepsy or other brain injury
  16. Participation in individual psychotherapy for BED in the prior 3 months
  17. Inability to attend treatment and lack of capacity to provide informed consent
  18. Any serious or unstable medical or psychological condition that, in the opinion of the investigator, would compromise the patient's safety or successful participation in the study

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Cognitive behavioral therapy
16-week cognitive behavioral therapy intervention for binge eating disorder
The cognitive behavioral therapy intervention will consist of weekly, 50-minute individual meetings for 16 weeks with a clinician trained in cognitive behavioral therapy for binge eating disorder.
Other: Waitlist control
16-weeks on waitlist then participants will be provided with 16-weeks of cognitive behavioral therapy
The waitlist group will have a 16-week waitlist period. After the waitlist period, they will be offered cognitive behavioral therapy.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Blood Oxygen Level-dependent (BOLD) Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) Response to Food-specific Stop-signal Task
Time Frame: Change from baseline to 16 weeks
BOLD fMRI (neural) response to high-calorie food cues during the food-specific stop-signal task in reward regions of interest. Reward-regions included BOLD response of the combination of prefrontal cortex, orbitofrontal cortex, insula, ventral tegmental area, and ventral striatum
Change from baseline to 16 weeks
Blood Oxygen Level-dependent (BOLD) Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) Response to Binge-eating Script-driven Imagery
Time Frame: Change from baseline to 16 weeks
BOLD fMRI response to descriptions of binge eating episodes during script-driven imagery (contrast in reward-regions of interest between food vs neutral stimuli). Reward-regions included combination of BOLD response in the prefrontal cortex, orbitofrontal cortex, insula, ventral tegmental area, and ventral striatum.
Change from baseline to 16 weeks

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Binge Eating Episodes
Time Frame: Change from baseline to 16 weeks
Change in number of episodes measured from the Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire. Higher values indicate more episodes.
Change from baseline to 16 weeks
Reward-based Eating Drive
Time Frame: Change from baseline to 16 weeks
Change measured from the Reward-Based Eating Drive Scale. Range of 0-52 with higher scores indicting higher reward-based eating drive.
Change from baseline to 16 weeks
Dietary Disinhibition
Time Frame: Change from baseline to 16 weeks
Self-report measured from the Eating Inventory Questionnaire. Score range of 0-16. Higher scores indicate higher levels of disinhibited eating.
Change from baseline to 16 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Collaborators

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

August 8, 2018

Primary Completion (Actual)

June 23, 2021

Study Completion (Actual)

November 22, 2021

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

June 19, 2018

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

July 19, 2018

First Posted (Actual)

July 27, 2018

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

April 18, 2023

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 23, 2023

Last Verified

March 1, 2023

More Information

Terms related to this study

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 829018
  • 5K23NR017209-03 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

Clinical Trials on Overweight and Obesity

Clinical Trials on Cognitive behavioral therapy

Search Similar Trials