Preliminary findings of a randomized controlled clinical trial of EMDR vs. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in the treatment of inpatients with obesity and binge eating disorder: the EMDRDCA Study.

Background: Overweight and obesity are linked with Binge Eating Disorder (BED). Traditionally, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is the therapeutic approach indicated both for inpatient and outpatient treatment of BED. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) could be more effective for the treatment of BED, in particular with patients who lived one or more traumatic experiences. Methods: A randomized controlled clinical trial is ongoing in order to test the hypothesis that a 4-week EMDR intervention is more effective than a parallel CBT intervention in the treatment of inpatients with obesity and BED who experienced a traumatic event and are referred to a residential rehabilitation program. Outcomes are the reduction of binge eating symptoms, emotional eating, psychological distress and trauma-related variables, and the improvement of emotion regulation from baseline to treatment completion. Preliminary data (n=8) show statistically and clinically significant changes as well as no significant changes and significant worsenings in both conditions. Discussion: Some faint between-group differences were observed in favor of the EMDR intervention but the heterogeneity of brief-term outcomes limits any preliminary assessment, pointing instead to the need of considering moderators of treatment effects in post-trial data analysis.