A team of scientists at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU) and the National Institutes of Health have piloted psychotherapy for the prevention of excessive weight gain in teenage girls deemed 'at-risk' for obesity. The study, published in the International Journal of Eating Disorders, found that girls who participated in Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT) may be better able to prevent their body mass index (BMI) from increasing excessively over the course of a year compared to girls who took traditional health education classes.
Marian Tanofsky-Kraff, Ph.D., assistant professor in USU's Department of Medical and Clinical Psychology, led the team which aimed to target youth considered at high risk of obesity because of their above average weight and reported episodes of loss of control eating or binge eating. Both higher weight and loss of control eating are linked to excessive weight gain in children and adolescents.
"IPT focuses on improving interpersonal relationships by targeting the underlying social and interpersonal difficulties that influence individuals to engage in maladaptive behaviors," said Tanofsky-Kraff. "For this study we looked specifically at loss of control eating." IPT has been shown to help both depressed adults and youth and to help tackle binge eating in adult studies. Decreases in binge eating may lead to weight maintenance issues or modest weight loss over time compared with continued or increased binge eating.
"We conducted this study to address the dramatically increased rates of obesity in children and adolescents," said Tanofsky-Kraff. "'IPT for Binge Eating Disorder is based on an assumption that binge eating occurs in response to poor social functioning and the consequent negative moods."