James Donaldson on Mental Health - What Is Binge Eating Disorder?

IPT for binge eating in teenagers Dr.

Tanofsky-Kraff advocates using IPT, which is focused on helping the child to understand relationship issues that may make them turn to overeating.

Kids who are binge eating are usually struggling with relationships, she says.

You might assume that their biggest concerns would be friendships and acceptance by peers, she adds, but it’s usually stressors with their parents.

“We did a study where we looked at all the problem areas to see what was it that was prompting their loss of control episodes, and it was most frequently difficulties with their parents.” IPT helps kids focus on interpersonal issues that are related to their eating.

“For instance,” she notes, “if every day when you come home from school you’re having a battle with your mom, you feel badly, and you use food to cope.” Dr.

Tanofsky-Kraff stresses that IPT improves not only kids’ eating habits but also their lives.

“It goes deeper, to what is promoting the loss of control.

It also improves relationships and mood symptoms, and loss of control is highly comorbid with things like anxiety and depression.” Scalable treatments Dr.

Goldschmidt notes the importance of developing scalable interventions that could be used to get care to kids who may have poor access to mental health professionals.