Efficacy of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy on Body Image, Psychological Distress, and Eating Disorder Beliefs in Patients with Anorexia Nervosa

Anorexia nervosa is a refusal to maintain the lowest normal body weight, a severe fear of weight gain, and a significant impairment in body image. This study aims to determine the effectiveness of cognitive behavior therapy on psychological distress, body image, and eating disorder beliefs in anorexic patients. The method of this study was semi-experimental with pre-test, post-test, and follow-up with a control group. The statistical population of the study consisted of patients with eating disorders referred to obesity and wasting treatment centers in Tehran, among which 30 patients were selected by purposeful sampling method and randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. The pre-test (Eating Disorder Beliefs Questionnaire) was run before the intervention; then, the intervention was conducted on the experimental group, but no intervention was carried out for the control group. The data were obtained by using the eating disorder beliefs questionnaire, the psychological distress questionnaire, and the body image concern inventory. They were analyzed by using the multivariate covariance analysis and SPSS.22 software. The results showed that cognitive behavior therapy led to the decrease of psychological distress (P<0.001), the body image concern (P<0.001), and the eating disorder beliefs (P<0.001). It can be concluded that cognitive behavior therapy reduces psychological distress, body image concerns, and eating disorder beliefs.