Effect of adapted interpersonal psychotherapy versus health education on mood and eating in the laboratory among adolescent girls with loss of control eating.

Objective: Interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT) is aimed at improving negative affect that is purported to contribute to the development and maintenance of loss-of-control (LOC) eating. Although youth who report LOC over eating tend to consume more snack-foods than those without LOC, it is unknown if IPT impacts objective energy intake.
Methods: To test if IPT improves mood and eating in the laboratory, we examined a sample of 88 girls with LOC eating who were randomized to either IPT (n = 46) or a standard-of-care health education (HE) group program. At baseline, and 6-month (follow-up 1) and 1-year (follow-up 2) following the initiation of the groups, girls consumed lunch from a multi-item meal with an instruction designed to model a LOC episode. Girls also reported mood state immediately before each meal.
Results: Girls in IPT experienced no significant changes in pre-meal state depressive affect, while girls in HE experienced a non-significant improvement by follow-up 1 and then returned to baseline by follow-up 2 (p < .04). We found no significant group difference for changes in total intake relative to girls' daily energy needs (p's ≥ .25). However, IPT reduced, while HE increased, the percentage of daily energy needs consumed from snack-foods by follow-up 2 (p = .04). Within-groups, HE increased their snack food intake from follow-up 1 to follow-up 2 (p = .01).
Conclusions: In adolescent girls with LOC, IPT did not change total intake at the test meal and was associated with reduced snack-food intake. Data are required to determine if IPT effectively prevents excess weight gain in the longer-term. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (Int J Eat Disord 2016; 49:490-498).
(© 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)