Gender differences in treatment outcomes for eating disorders

  • Eating disorders (EDs) are increasingly emerging as a health risk in men, yet men remain underrepresented in ED research, including interventional trials. This underrepresentation of men may have facilitated the development of women-centered ED treatments that result in suboptimal outcomes for men. The present study retrospectively compared pre- vs. post-treatment outcomes between age-, diagnosis-, and length-of-treatment-matched samples of \(\it n\) = 200 men and \(\it n\) = 200 women with Anorexia Nervosa (AN), Bulimia Nervosa (BN), Binge Eating Disorder (BED), or Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (EDNOS), treated in the same setting during the same period, and using the same measurements. Compared to women, men with AN showed marked improvements in weight gains during treatment as well as in ED-specific cognitions and general psychopathology. Likewise, men with BED showed marked weight loss during treatment compared to women with BED; ED-specific cognitions and general psychopathology outcomes were comparable in this case. For BN and EDNOS, weight, ED-specific cognitions, and general psychopathology outcomes remained largely comparable between men and women. Implications for treatments are discussed.

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Metadaten
Author:Georg HalbeisenORCiDGND, Karsten BraksORCiDGND, Thomas J. HuberGND, Georgios PaslakisORCiDGND
URN:urn:nbn:de:hbz:294-102218
DOI:https://doi.org/10.3390/nu14112240
Parent Title (English):Nutrients
Subtitle (English):a case-matched, retrospective pre–post comparison
Publisher:MDPI
Place of publication:Basel, Schweiz
Document Type:Article
Language:English
Date of Publication (online):2023/08/24
Date of first Publication:2022/05/27
Publishing Institution:Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universitätsbibliothek
Tag:Open Access Fonds
anorexia nervosa; binge eating disorder; bulimia nervosa; diversity; eating disorder; men's health; psychotherapy
Volume:14
Issue:11, Article 2240
First Page:2240-1
Last Page:2240-21
Note:
Article Processing Charge funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) and the Open Access Publication Fund of Ruhr-Universität Bochum.
Institutes/Facilities:LWL-Universitätsklinikum Bochum, Klinik für Psychosomatische Medizin und Psychotherapie
Dewey Decimal Classification:Technik, Medizin, angewandte Wissenschaften / Medizin, Gesundheit
open_access (DINI-Set):open_access
faculties:Medizinische Fakultät
Licence (English):License LogoCreative Commons - CC BY 4.0 - Attribution 4.0 International