Psychotherapy for binge eating

There are many types of psychotherapy used to treat binge eating in bulimia nervosa (BN) and binge-eating disorder (BED). Some of the most common psychotherapies include cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT), behavioral weightloss treatment (BWL), third-wave therapies (e.g., dialectical behavior therapy, DBT), and family-based therapy (FBT). This chapter was designed to review the empirical evidence for each of these interventions to treat binge eating in both BN and BED. The chapter highlights the most well-supported psychotherapies and briefly discusses promising psychotherapies that are emerging in the field. Given the vast differences in binge eating treatment for adults and youth, the chapter discusses each population separately to provide the most comprehensive overview of the literature. The chapter also discusses the efficacy of these psychotherapies to address comorbidities that are often associated with binge-eating-related disorders (e.g., depression) and reviews future directions of the field.