Assessment and management of eating disordered patients who over-exercise: A four-year follow-up of six single case studies

The relationship between excessive exercise and eating disorder, both in terms of aetiology and maintenance, has been widely discussed in the extant literature but there are no treatment guidelines. The utility of a specific cognitive-behavioural treatment that included exposure with response prevention, targeted at excessive exercise, was examined in six patients with anorexia nervosa. The pooled outcome data, including four-year follow-up data, from a series of single case studies is presented. The findings suggest that the treatment programme was successful in some cases. A comparison of satisfactory and poor outcome cases indicates a need to evaluate this adjunctive treatment with a larger (controlled) patient sample to assess more accurately its potential additional (relapse prevention) benefit.