Örebro Studies in Medicine 234 I
ÖREBRO 2021 2021M
AR
IA
F
OG
ELK
VI
ST
Bo
dy i
m
ag
e i
n p
ati
en
ts w
ith r
es
id
ua
l e
ati
ng d
is
ord
er s
ym
pto
m
s
maria fogelkvist is a clinical psychologist at the spe-cialized Centre for Eating Disorders in Örebro, Sweden. She has previously worked at a child-and adolescent psychiatry outpatient unit in Örebro. She began her doctoral studies at the University Health Care Research Center, Faculty of Medicine and Health, Örebro University in 2013. Her research involves an intervention based on acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) targeting body image in individuals with an eating disorder.
Many individuals develop issues with their body image, from dissatisfaction, perceptional disturbances to an overvaluation of the importance of appearance for ones’ self-worth. For some, these issues contributes to feelings of depres-sion and impairs quality of life, while for others it leads to disordered eating or eating disorders. For individuals with an eating disorder, these issues can be factors that maintain the disorder, and if not addresses in treatment there is an increased risk for relapse. The overall aim of this thesis was to evaluate an ACT group intervention targeting body image issues in patients with resi-dual eating disorder symptoms, including treatment effects and participants’ reflections on body image and the intervention.
The results suggests that while body image was experienced in different ways between participants, and they described different expectations from treatment, the ACT intervention was helpful in improving body image. The intervention was superior to treatment as usual in reducing eating disorder symptoms at follow-up by two years, while care consumption was lower. The greater reduction of eating disorder symptoms in ACT compared to treatment as usual were more pronounced in individuals with restrictive eating disorder psychopathology. Moreover, individuals with a younger age, and lower baseline severity in eating disorder symptoms showed no further improvement in treatment as usual. Specific content of the ACT intervention was perceived as helpful, and the group format, the timing of the interven-tion, and the context outside of the intervention could facilitate or hinder treatment progress. Although the intervention was demanding, participants stressed the importance of their own input, and the need for self-exploration in order for change to happen.
issn 1652-4063 isbn 978-91-7529-382-0
