ABSTRACT
Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is the most thoroughly studied form of treatment for the eating disorders. Consistent with other behavior therapy interventions, CBT generally avoids the modification of underlying psychological conflicts in favor of the direct change of cognitions and behavior that comprise the eating disorders. Furthermore, CBT attempts to modify those cognitive and behavioral processes, which are thought to maintain the disorder, or be proximal causal variables, while not addressing more distal factors that may have causal significance (e.g., early relationships). Like the CBT techniques used to manage mood and anxiety disorders (1,2), CBT for bulimia nervosa is generally a short-term treatment in which the clinician is encouraged to actively focus and direct the process of change.
