Effectiveness of Emotion-Focused Therapy on Emotion Regulation and Periods of Overeating in Women with Binge Eating Disorder

  Emotion dysregulation is one of the predisposing factors for overeating. Regarding this, the aim of the present study was to investigate the effectiveness of emotion-focused group therapy on emotion regulation and courses of overeating in women with binge eating disorder. This semi-experimental study was conducted on 16 women with binge eating disorder referring to the Obesity Treatment Centers in Tehran, Iran, using a pretest-posttest design and a follow-up of 6 weeks with a control group. The study population was randomly assigned into two groups of intervention (n=8) and control (n=8). The data collection was performed using the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale. The intervention group was subjected to 10 90- minute interventional sessions. The control group was provided with these sessions after the completion of the experiment for ethical considerations. At the end of the intervention, the
questionnaire was administered on the research groups again. The data were analyzed in SPSS software (version 24) using descriptive statistics (i.e., mean and standard deviation) and inferential statistics, such as repeated measures analysis of covariance. P-value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. According to the findings, emotion-focused group therapy resulted in a significant increase in the overall score of emotional difficulty and index of overeating periods in binge eating disorder in the intervention group (P≤0.05). As the findings indicated, emotion-focused therapy could improve the symptoms of binge eating disorder