Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy on Bulimia Nervosa in Overweight Women

Eating disorders are a category of mental / psychiatric disorders that cause many problems in physical health and mental functioning. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy on the Bulimia nervosa of overweight women.

The present study is a Semi-experimental with pre-test and post-test design with control group. In this study, 40 overweight women with BMI greater than 30 in area 1 of Tehran were selected by available sampling method and were randomly divided into experimental and control groups. Subjects responded to the Garner et al (1982) Eating Questionnaire in two stages of pre-test and post-test. The experimental group received 8 sessions of 60 min of acceptance and commitment-based therapy in the group, while the control group received no treatment. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, univariate and multivariate analysis of covariance and SPSS software version 25.

Comparison of experimental groups with control group showed that Bulimia nervosa and its sub-scales (diet, overeating and mental health with food and oral restraint) were significantly reduced in experimental group compared to control group and the efficacy of acceptance and commitment-based treatment on Bulimia nervosa was confirmed at post-test (p<0.001). The effect was between 75.7% and 81.1%.

Generally, the results indicated a significant effect of a course of acceptance and commitment-based treatment on the variables of Bulimia nervosa and weight loss in overweight women.