Effectiveness of the ECHOs Approach for Patients With Eating Disorders and Their Carers (ECHO)

Family therapy is considered an empirically supported treatment approach for adolescents and adults with eating disorders. One family based approach, Expert Carers Helping Others (ECHO) is based on evidence that suggests family environment, e.g., carer criticism, can influence an individual's eating disorder symptoms. ECHO aims to improve carer coping, reduce expressed emotion and manage eating disorder symptoms, and has been associated with reduced carer distress, caregiver burden, and an increase in general well being. The current pilot study seeks to evaluate a new condensed version of the ECHO intervention that is delivered entirely in a 2 ½ hour self-help DVD format (ECHOs). Sixty patients and their carers will be recruited from the Capital Health Eating Disorders Service and randomized into either a treatment as usual group (TAU) or a TAU+ECHOs group. Both carers and patients will be assessed along a variety of dimensions including psychiatric symptoms, family functioning, and carer and patient collaboration, at pre-intervention, four weeks later at post-intervention, and then three-months post-intervention. ANOVAs will be used to compare the primary outcomes between the two groups over time. This pilot study will be the first evaluation of ECHOs, which may ultimately boost the efficacy of current treatment for adults with eating disorders and reduce carer distress.