The Effectiveness of Interpersonal Therapy on Emotion Regulation and Depression in Women with Bulimia Nervosa

Binge eating disorder (BED) is defined as ingestion of an unusually large amount of food with a sense of lack of control during the overeating episodes. This study aimed to determine the efficacy of interpersonal group therapy on depression and emotion regulation in women with bulimia nervosa. A quasi-experimental methodology was used with pretest-posttest design, control group, and a two-month follow-up test. Thirty research samples from the community of women with bulimia nervosa referred to the Iranian Overeating Association in Tehran between September and November 2019 were selected by convenience sampling method and randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. The required findings were collected using the Depression Inventory (Beck, 1972) and Emotional Regulation (Granfski et al., 2000) in three rounds: pre-test, post-test, and follow-up test. Results were analyzed using variance analysis with repeated measures by Spss.22. The results of repeated measures analysis of variance showed that interpersonal group therapy is effective in reducing depression and improving emotional regulation strategies in patients with bulimia nervosa (p≤0.005). Bonferroni test showed that this effect is lasting over time (p≤0.005). Considering the efficacy of interpersonal group therapy on depression and emotional regulation, it is recommended to use interpersonal group therapy for women with bulimia nervosa.