Motivation-focused treatment for eating disorders: a sequential trial of enhanced cognitive behaviour therapy with and without preceding motivation-focused therapy.

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of a motivation-focused intervention prior to individual cognitive behavioural eating disorder treatment.

Method: Enhanced cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT-E) in its usual form was compared with CBT-E preceded by four sessions of motivation-focused therapy (MFT) (MFT + CBT-E). Participants were adult outpatients seen at a specialist eating disorder clinic in Western Australia, who met criteria for a Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition eating disorder. A sequential trial of CBT-E as usual (n = 43) and MFT + CBT-E (n = 52) was conducted over a 40-month period.

Results: The MFT phase was associated with significant increases in readiness to change. There were no significant between-group differences in treatment completion rates, and treatment completers in both conditions reported comparable reductions in eating disorder symptoms over time.

Conclusion: In this sample, MFT + CBT-E was not associated with superior treatment outcome when compared with CBT-E as usual.