Associations between therapy experiences and perceived helpfulness of treatment for people with eating disorders

Abstract

Plain English Summary Eating disorders can cause a large impact to the lives of those living with them and their loved ones. There is a need for research from the perspective of the individual with lived eating disorder experience to shape treatment for these conditions. This study aimed to address this need by investigating features of therapy and how they impacted the overall perception of treatment helpfulness. It was found that therapist related factors, such as providing freedom of choice around change and instilling hope, accounted for a large contribution to helpfulness. It was also found that motivation may not necessarily have to be high when commencing treatment to result in better ratings of treatment helpfulness.

Keywords

• Feeding and eating disorders
• Therapeutics
• Treatment failure
• Therapeutic alliance
• Patient participation
• Multivariate analysis