Interpersonal Psychotherapy

Both the Fairburn and Agras studies ultimately concluded that cognitive-behavioral therapy should still be considered, “the preferred psychotherapeutic treatment for bulimia nervosa,” (Agras et al., 2000, p. 465), however, in follow up study by many of the researchers from the initial Fairburn et al. (1993) study, they examined long-term treatment outcomes and found that at 6-years post treatment 72% of individuals who received interpersonal psychotherapy no longer met the diagnostic criteria for bulimia nervosa (based on DSM-IV criteria) (Murphy et al., 2012). Several issues exist in the Agras study that may decrease the research’s impact. Agras and colleagues arguably shows bias towards cognitive-behavioral therapy, as the interpersonal

Apple illustrates the treatment of Sara, an Israeli-born 39-year-old woman, who reported experiencing symptoms congruent with bulimia nervosa since she began modeling at 15 years of age. Dr. Apple details the progression through the three stages of interpersonal psychotherapy for bulimia nervosa, highlighting the impact the loss of her sisters several years prior had on Sara, and the common structure of many of her major interpersonal connections, (Apple, 1999). The case study provides a model example of an individual whose “problem areas” are one or more of the five common areas listed by individuals with bulimia nervosa, and as such may find interpersonal psychotherapy a more effective treatment in the long run. This is especially evident when examining the direct impact Sara’s unacknowledged grief and anger over her sister’s death has on her eating habits; as Sara begins to acknowledge and cope with the death, her urges to binge and purge being to decrease (Apple, 1999). Dr. Apple argues, “[g]iven this client’s initial lack of awareness of a connection between grief and her eating disorder, it is unclear in what way or to what extent this issue would have come to light, especially this quickly, in another therapy model,” (Apple, 1999, p.