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Effects of a dialectical behavior therapy-based skills group intervention for obese individuals: a Brazilian pilot study

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Abstract

Purpose

This pilot study aimed to analyze the effects of an adapted dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) skills training group on problematic and adaptive eating behaviors in Brazilian obese individuals.

Methods

Thirty-one obese individuals were randomly assigned to 10 sessions of adapted DBT skills training (n = 14) or two months of a waiting list comparison condition (n = 17).

Results

Attrition rates were similar to what’s been found in comparable studies, with most dropouts happening at the beginning of the treatment. Results showed improvements in binge eating severity (d = 0.80) and depression (d = 0.82) compared to no treatment condition. After the intervention, adaptive eating and distress outcomes showed an improvement trend, reaching nonclinical levels for most participants in the intervention group. Large to moderate between-group effect sizes were observed, but none of those were statistically significant. Large within-group effect sizes were observed in the intervention group in binge eating severity (d = 1.34), intuitive eating (d = 1.33) and depression (d = 1.12). Medium effect sizes were observed in emotional eating (d = 0.73) and in emotion regulation (d = 0.72). Despite positive outcomes in other variables, mindful eating worsened after the intervention (d = 0.66).

Conclusions

These results are preliminary and require further replications with larger samples, yet they suggest that the intervention may be useful to improve distress outcomes and adaptive eating among obese people. Implications for clinical practice and recommendations for future research are discussed.

Level of evidence

Level I, randomized controlled trial.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul, Av. Ipiranga, 6681 Partenon, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande Do Sul, 90619-900, Brazil

    Ana Carolina Maciel Cancian, Lucas André Schuster de Souza, Ronald Patrick Araujo Liboni & Margareth da Silva Oliveira

  2. Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Campinas, Campinas, Brazil

    Wagner de Lara Machado

Authors
  1. Ana Carolina Maciel Cancian
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  2. Lucas André Schuster de Souza
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  3. Ronald Patrick Araujo Liboni
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  4. Wagner de Lara Machado
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  5. Margareth da Silva Oliveira
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ana Carolina Maciel Cancian.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. The study was approved by the Local Research Ethics Committee (CEP PUCRS), under the protocol approval number CAEE: 50096515.0.0000.5336.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Data availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Cancian, A.C.M., de Souza, L.A.S., Liboni, R.P.A. et al. Effects of a dialectical behavior therapy-based skills group intervention for obese individuals: a Brazilian pilot study. Eat Weight Disord 24, 1099–1111 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40519-017-0461-2

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