Effectiveness Of Positive Psychotherapy On Eating Disorder Beliefs, Alexithymia And Weight Loss In Overweight Women

In recent years, obesity and overweight have become a major public health threat over the world. This research has aimed at investigating the effectiveness of positive psychotherapy on eating disorder beliefs, Alexithymia and weight loss in overweight women.

The research design was a semi-experimental pre-test-post-test with a control group and follow-up stage. The statistical population included overweight women referring to nutrition clinics in Urmia in 1398. Subjects were screened using the inclusion criteria. Among them, a sample of 30 people was selected by available sampling method and randomly   divided into two groups of 15 people. For the experimental group, positivist psychotherapy training was provided in 8, 1-hour sessions according to the instructions of Seligman and Rashid (2008), while the control group did not receive any training. The research instruments included body mass index (BMI) which was measured by dividing weight (in kilograms) by height squared (in meters), Toronto Alexithymia Scale ( TAS-20)  and Eating Disorders Beliefs Questionnaire (EDBQ).

The results showed that positive psychotherapy has significant impacts on weight loss, eating disorders beliefs and   alexithymia in obese and overweight women.

According to the obtained results, positive psychotherapy can be used for weight loss, eating disorders beliefs and Alexithymia. Therefore, it is suggested that this intervention applies for overweight and obesity treatment.