Journal
BMC PSYCHIATRY
Volume 13, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
BMC
DOI: 10.1186/1471-244X-13-111
Keywords
Alliance; Anorexia nervosa; Chronic; Eating disorder; Inpatient; Motivation; Therapy; Stages of change; Transtheoretical model
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Funding
- Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes (German National Academic Foundation)
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
- Tuebingen University
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Background: Anorexia nervosa (AN) is associated with high rates of chronicity and relapse risk is a considerable therapeutic challenge in the disorder. The aim of the present study was to investigate the association of stages of change and outcome with a focus on the relapse struggle in the maintenance stage in patients with predominantly chronic AN. Further, therapeutic alliance and stages of change associations were explored. Methods: As an instrument measuring relapse struggle in the maintenance stage, we applied the short form of the University of Rhode Island Change Assessment-Short (URICA-S). We assessed stages of change in 39 patients with a predominantly chronic course of AN in early, middle, and late stages of inpatient psychotherapy. General symptom severity as assessed by the SCL-90-R and weight change were investigated as outcome measures. Results: In-line with earlier evidence, contemplation significantly predicted therapeutic alliance. Further, we demonstrated that relapse risk as operationalized by URICA-S maintenance is an important predictor of general psychopathology. BMI change was not predicted by stages of change. Conclusions: The URICA-S maintenance scale might be applied to help identify patients at relapse risk. High URICA-S maintenance scores could be considered as one critical aspect of AN patients who might especially benefit from relapse-preventing aftercare programs.
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