Evaluating Open Weighing and Blind Weighing in the Treatment of Adolescents and Young Adults With Eating Disorders

Status: Recruiting
Location: See location...
Intervention Type: Behavioral
Study Type: Interventional
Study Phase: Not Applicable
SUMMARY

Current treatments for adolescents and young adults (AYAs) with eating disorders (EDs) do not effectively address a central ED symptom - anxiety about weight gain - which contributes to poor outcomes. The proposed study evaluates the feasibility, acceptability, efficacy, and underlying mechanisms of an enhanced version of open weighing, a cognitive-behavioral intervention designed to target anxiety about weight gain in AYAs with EDs. Understanding how to better treat AYAs with EDs, and identifying the mechanisms by which interventions lead to improvement, will aid in the development of more effective and personalized treatments, ultimately improving the lives of AYAs with EDs.

Eligibility
Participation Requirements
Sex: All
Minimum Age: 12
Maximum Age: 24
Healthy Volunteers: f
View:

• Participants must be English speakers.

• Participants must be between the ages of 12 - 24 years who have been admitted to either the adolescent or young adult Partial Hospital Program (PHP) for eating disorders (EDs) at Penn State Hershey.

• Participants must also present with an eating disorder (ED) diagnosis that is characterized by anxiety about weight gain, such as anorexia nervosa (AN), Bulimia nervosa (BN), or their subthreshold presentations captured under the other specific feeding or eating disorder (OSFED) category.

Locations
United States
Pennsylvania
905 W Govener Rd
RECRUITING
Hershey
Contact Information
Primary
Jamal Essayli, Ph.D
jessayli@pennstatehealth.psu.edu
7175310003
Time Frame
Start Date: 2023-10-31
Estimated Completion Date: 2026-06-30
Participants
Target number of participants: 70
Treatments
Experimental: Open weighing
The open-weighing intervention aims to challenge beliefs about weight gain. The study coordinator (SC) will explain open weighing, discuss any concerns you have about your weight, and construct a weight graph with the number of weeks on the x-axis and weight in pounds on the y-axis. The SC will help identify beliefs about gaining weight, which will be written on a Feared Outcomes Form. The SC will ask you to predict your weight, mark the weight prediction on the graph, weigh you on a standing scale, record your weight, and discuss your responses to seeing your weight, including any reasons for a difference between your predicted and actual weight. Each week, the SC will graph your actual and predicted weights over time and discuss anything that you are learning from this process. The SC will ask you to complete the Feared Outcomes Form once per day over the next week, review it each week, and talk to you about what you are learning from this process.
Active_comparator: Blind weighing
The blind weighing intervention aims to help you see self-weighing as an eating disorder symptom that you should stop, and that weight is not important to your identity or selfesteem. To do this, the study coordinator will explain why blind weighing might be helpful. You will then be asked to step backwards on a standing scale. The study coordinator will record your weight, but will not share your weight information with you. The study coordinator will discourage you from thinking or talking about your weight.
Related Therapeutic Areas
Sponsors
Leads: Milton S. Hershey Medical Center

This content was sourced from clinicaltrials.gov