Family Treatment for Adolescents With Anorexia Nervosa

May 16, 2014 updated by: C. Alix Timko, Towson University

Acceptance Based Separated Family Treatment for Adolescents With Anorexia Nervosa

This treatment development study seeks to investigate the most effective way to treat an adolescent's eating disorder and how best to involve the parents or caregivers in this process.

Typically, parents and their child are seen together in therapy. However, this can sometimes be difficult for both the parents and the adolescent. Both parents and adolescents have different concerns and are struggling with different aspects of the eating disorder. Therefore, the treatment in this study involves the parents in treatment, but the majority of therapy sessions are conducted with the parent(s) and adolescent separately.

Participants meet with a therapist for 20 sessions over the course of 24 weeks. For the first 16 weeks parents and the adolescent meet individually with the therapist. For the last 8 weeks families meet with the therapist every other week. These last four sessions are conjoint - that is, adolescents and parents will meet with the therapist together. This is to help parents and adolescents come together as a family to continue to aid the adolescent in the treatment of his/her eating disorder.

The investigators hypothesize that adolescents who receive this treatment will demonstrate improvement in eating disorder symptoms and body-mass index and that caregivers who participate will demonstrate decreased distress and caregiver burden. Furthermore, the investigators hypothesize that increases in psychological acceptance will be seen for both adolescents and caregivers post-treatment, and that treatment will be viewed as both credible and acceptable to both caregiver and adolescent.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

The purpose of this study is to develop and gather preliminary data on an acceptance-based behavioral treatment for adolescents with anorexia nervosa (AN) that is delivered in a separated family format. The treatment will combine a parent's skills curriculum that has demonstrated preliminary effectiveness in the treatment of AN, with a novel adolescent component based on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). ACT has been found to be useful in the treatment of an array of psychological difficulties, and may be particularly well-suited for the cognitive and behavioral avoidance and rigidity that characterizes individuals with AN and their caregivers.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

26

Phase

  • Phase 1

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

  • United States
    • North Carolina
      • Durham, North Carolina, United States, 27713
        • Duke University Medical Center
    • Pennsylvania
      • Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, 19104
        • University of the Sciences

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

12 years to 18 years (Child, Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Adolescent is between 12-18 years of age and living in home with caregivers
  • Parent or primary caregiver willing to attend therapy sessions
  • Adolescent meets diagnostic criteria of anorexia nervosa (either restricting or binge/purge subtype) or subthreshold AN (relaxation of weight criterion to 90% of ideal body weight as determined by weight history and CDC growth curves) or eating disorder not otherwise specified (with restricting as the primary symptom) according to the DSM-IV TR
  • Adolescent is appropriate for outpatient care and receives medical clearance from a primary care physician

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Caregiver or adolescent with a co-morbid diagnosis of psychotic disorder, bi-polar disorder, or substance dependence
  • Caregiver or adolescent with diagnosis of mental retardation or a pervasive developmental disorder
  • Adolescent with a diagnosis of eating disorder not otherwise specified with the primary symptoms of bingeing and purging, binging without compensatory behaviors or spitting food or with restricting patterns but a BMI greater than 90% ideal weight (as determined by weight history and CDC growth curves)
  • Adolescent with extreme malnutrition or other medical complications/ diagnoses that require a higher level of care
  • Acute suicide risk

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: Non-Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Active Treatment
Behavioral: Acceptance-based separated family treatment
Family treatment that combines Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) for the adolescent with Parent Skills Training for caregivers. The treatment package is designed to increase willingness to experience difficult thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations in order to engage in effective behavior. To facilitate this, caregivers are provided with psychoeducation on eating disorders and skills in behavior management, self-regulation, and emotion regulation.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Body Mass Index (BMI
Time Frame: 9 months (6 months active treatment, 3 months follow-up)
9 months (6 months active treatment, 3 months follow-up)

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Eating Disorder Examination (16.0D)
Time Frame: 9 months (6 months of treatment and 3 month follow-up)
9 months (6 months of treatment and 3 month follow-up)

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Towson University

Collaborators

Duke University
University of the Sciences in Philadelphia

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Alix Timko, PhD, Towson University/University of the Sciences

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

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

May 1, 2009

Primary Completion (Actual)

May 1, 2012

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

January 19, 2011

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 19, 2011

First Posted (Estimate)

January 21, 2011

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

May 19, 2014

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 16, 2014

Last Verified

May 1, 2014

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • R21MH08597

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.

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