A One-Day ACT Workshop for Emotional Eating

McGill University

Status: Completed

Conditions: Eating Behavior; Emotional Eating

Treatments: Behavioral: ACT Workshop for Emotional Eating

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03744780

143-0818

Details and patient eligibility

About

Emotional eating is a behaviour that has been linked to weight concerns, mental health concerns, and disordered eating. Effective interventions have been developed to treat emotional eating, however these exist solely in the context of promoting weight loss. Emotional eating is not exclusive to those who struggle with weight and thus interventions are needed that target those who engage in emotional eating regardless of their weight status. The present study aims to do so through the implementation of a one day Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) workshop for emotional eaters.

Full description

Emotional eating is defined as increased food consumption in response to negative emotions, and has been linked to weight concerns, mental health concerns, and disordered eating behaviours. Effective interventions have been developed that address emotional eating, namely to improve weight loss. Such interventions are based in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), which encourages tolerance of internal cues, such as emotions, and external cues, such as food.

Emotional eating, however, is not exclusive to those who struggle with their weight. Many individuals maintain a normal weight despite engaging in emotional eating. These individuals still consume an excess of high calorie (for which they somehow eventually compensate), high fat, and high sugar foods as part of their emotional eating. Unhealthy dietary habits such as these have been shown to be associated with an increased risk of all-cause mortality, as well as health concerns including diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Individuals with normal weight are not eligible for ACT programs described above, despite the increased risk of health concerns associated with emotional eating.

The present study aims to test the feasibility and acceptability of a one-day ACT workshop to reduce emotional eating and improve health that is not focused on weight loss as its primary outcome, and rather targets all individuals who engage in emotional eating.

Enrollment: 32 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Engaging in emotional eating as per a DEBQ-EE score of 3.25 or higher
• Being over the age of 18

Exclusion criteria

• Not meeting the DEBQ-EE 3.25 or higher inclusion criteria
• Being under the age of 18

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: N/A

Interventional model: Single Group Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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32 participants in 1 patient group

ACT Workshop for Emotional Eating

Experimental group

Description:

All participants will be assigned to a one-day intervention using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) techniques to help reduce emotional eating.

Treatment:

Behavioral: ACT Workshop for Emotional Eating