The effect of training to target cognitive biases towards social rejection in eating disorders

Objective

This study examined the effect of cognitive bias modification for interpretation (CBM-I) training in Korean women with eating disorders (EDs).

Method

Sixty-three women with EDs participated in the study. Participants were randomly assigned to the intervention group where they received six sessions of CBM-I training (n = 31) in addition to treatment-as-usual or were put on a waiting list (n = 32). Participants' interpretation and attention biases, emotion regulation, affect, and ED psychopathology were assessed at baseline, end-of-intervention (4 weeks), and follow-up (8 weeks).

Results

Participants who completed the CBM-I training displayed greater reductions in negative interpretation bias (Δη² = 0.107) and emotion dysregulation (Δη² = 0.085) with medium to large effect sizes compared to the control group, which were maintained from baseline to follow-up. Disengagement from negative faces and a focus on positive faces was found in the intervention group with a moderate effect size at the end-of-intervention (Δη² = 0.090). Both intervention and control groups showed improvements in ED psychopathology. Baseline neuroticism was positively correlated with CBM-I effect.

Discussion

The results suggest that modifying interpretation bias towards ambiguous social stimuli might be an effective adjuvant treatment to reduce negative expectations of social situations and improve emotion regulation in women with bulimia nervosa and anorexia nervosa.