Active clinical trials for "Bulimia Nervosa"

We are interested in studying two different psychological treatments for eating disorders for adolescents (ages 12-18). The study is designed to help adolescents who are having problems with binge eating and/or purging. The treatment consists of 14 sessions of approximately one-hour each over about three months.

This is a pilot study investigating if cycloserine (DCS; a learning enhancement medication) augments exposure therapy for food anxiety in patients with anorexia and bulimia nervosa. The investigators expect that (a) exposure therapy will reduce anxiety (b) anxiety will be reduced more in the DCS relative to placebo condition (c) participants in the DCS condition will have a greater increase in Body Mass Index.

This pilot study examines the effect of stabilizing ovarian hormones on eating behaviors and brain activation in women with binge eating (n=15) using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and behavioral tests. This is completed by taking oral contraceptives (birth control) continuously for three months. Prior to medication administration and at the end of treatment, eating behaviors will be measured and fMRI will be conducted in order to examine changes in activation in dopamine-reward pathways that occur with oral contraceptive administration. This will assess changes in brain activation that occur with the stabilization of ovarian hormones.

This trial is a set of four independent experiments involving for each of them functional and structural MRI data acquisition. They aim at investigating decision making mechanisms in bulimia nervosa when participants have to make food or monetary choices under specific conditions that mimic binge eating episodes or kleptomania which are two major symptoms of bulimia nervosa. All experiments are cross sectional studies. Each experiment is subdivided into two parts: a first part without any MRI data acquisition and during which all the tasks are performed. This part aims at making sure that a behavioral effect is observed before starting MRI data acquisition. The second part aims at investigating the neural correlates observed in the first part and additionally, at reproducing the behavioral effects observed in the first part. Therefore the first part may be regarded as an independent study as compared to the second part.

Bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder pose a public health concern due to their high co-occurrence with other psychiatric disorders and poor physical health outcomes. It is therefore concerning that less than half of these patients seek treatment for their condition. People may be reluctant to seek treatment due to not wanting to disclose symptoms to family members. Even for those who do wish to seek help, treatment is often inaccessible due to the geographic centralization of eating disorder specialists and a low ratio of specialists to patients. Therefore, the aim of this study is to test a potential solution to these problems and make eating disorder care more private and accessible. One possible way to improve the accessibility of treatment is through smartphone applications (or "apps"). We are testing an app called Recovery Record, which is primarily a tool used to self-monitor eating habits, where patients record their meals and related thoughts, feelings, emotions, and behaviours (e.g., binge eating/purging). The app also offers additional features such as discrete reminders to log meals, positive reinforcement, social support, coping strategy suggestions, and linking users with clinicians for real-time feedback and suggestions. The application is scientifically supported and has been tested with positive results. Recently, app developers have created a computer-automated 8-week treatment program that uses the patient's data to provide a tailored and individualized treatment program. This program aims to mimic the process of therapy by checking in with users, reminding them of their reasons for wanting to recover, and working towards goals. We will be testing this automated app treatment program, comparing it both with and without input from a trained coach providing individualized feedback to users.

This is a pilot study to test the efficacy of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) in treating individuals with Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa. The main objective of this study is to determine the short and long-term efficacy of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) in reducing eating disorder symptoms (i.e. binging, purging, restricting, intense fear of gaining wait, etc;) in Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa. The investigators will also be comparing the brain activity patterns of individuals with Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa to healthy controls using electroencephalography (EEG). Further, the investigators would like to examine if the activation patterns in these patients change after receiving rTMS.

Background: research show that cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is effective inreducing bulimia nervosa (BN) and binge eating disorder's (BED) symptoms. Today, with the development of technology there are efforts being made for developinga treatment to these eating disorders threw the media, most of these attempts are based on the CBT method. The size of the effect that CBT given threw the internet has on BN and BED is still not entirely clear. Research presented today are mostly based on treatments that were given threw email or Skypeor an automatic self- help stage program. These researches show heterogenic results about the effect it had on eating disorders. In this research we aim to investigate the effect size that a CBT treatment threw a smartphone application that combines a clinician online reply and an automatic feedback in addition to astandard ones a week clinic treatment has on BN and BED symptoms frequency. Methods: Our aim is to make a research using an application that treats that offers an automatic and human therapist and dietitian reply threw a similar application that is suited for them. A selected 40 BN or sub-threshold BN or BED patients, men and women ages 18-60 ,that will turn to the "Sheba eating disorder medical center" will include the research. Half of the participants will receive aCBT treatment threw a smartphone application along with astandardclinical treatment that includes ones a week session with a therapist and ones a week session with a dietitian and the other half will receive a standardclinic treatment alone. We will test the eating disorder symptoms using eating disorders questionnaires at the starting point, at the end of a six months treatment and six months after finishing the treatment. Importance: This research will allow testing the need and benefit that a personal and direct patient- therapist connection has over a standardones a week meeting connection format. In addition, treating with a web application in the future might have a benefit of saving time spent on getting to the clinic, will allow to shorten the time of the session in the clinic and will save cost of the face to face treatment.

The aim of this study is to determine whether in-patient treatment is better then intensive out-patient group treatment for patients with concurrent eating disorder and personality disorder.

The goal of this study is to generate pilot data exploring the addition of an augmentation (additional) medication to patients suffering from bulimia nervosa who have responded but not had complete symptom resolution with a course of standard medication treatment.

The aim of this observational study is to elucidate the biopsychosocial (including neural, psychological, and social) basis of eating disorders (EDs). The investigators will use functional and structural neuroimaging, psychological as well as environmental data to identify both shared and distinct behavioural/neural processes across ED diagnoses. The investigators will use advanced statistical methods such as machine learning based models. The investigators will carry out analysis on the data already collected in the STRATIFY (Brain network based stratification of reinforcement-related disorders, IRAS ID 218030) and IMAGEN studies (Reinforcement-related behaviour in normal brain function and psychopathology, reference PNM/10/11-126), including participants with Anorexia Nervosa (N=60), Bulimia Nervosa (N=52), Binge eating disorder (N=27) and healthy controls. In addition, the investigators will recruit 30 new participants with a binge eating disorder using the original STRATIFY study protocol to enlarge the binge eating disorder group, so that its sample size is comparable to the other groups. Participants will complete online questionnaires, take an online clinical interview, and undergo a research visit, including brain scans, collection of blood and urine samples, and assessment using a range of cognitive and behavioural measures.