Involving Significant Others

Cognitive behaviour thearpy (CBT) for binge-eating disorder BED is an individual treatment. However, the significant others of adult patients (whether friends, partners, or parents) are involved in some joint sessions if they may facilitate treatment and the patient agrees to their assistance (generally in about one-third of adult cases). Three to four joint sessions may be held after individual ones, and the goal is to recruit significant others to help create an optimal environment to facilitate patient change. With adolescent patients, parents are always involved, given the age and circumstances of these patients. Parental involvement is usually limited to one short joint session with the patient at the end of the individual assessment/preparation phase, one with parents alone in the first week of treatment, and as many joint sessions at the end of a patient’s individual session as required. These joint sessions, in both adolescents and adults, should last about 15 minutes.