The focused form of intensive CBT-E is associated with significant improvements in non-eating disorder specific mechanisms in patients with anorexia nervosa. However, when low self-esteem or specific interpersonal difficulties are present, these factors significantly predict poorer outcomes in eating-disorder psychopathology and weight restoration. This suggests that, for a subset of patients, addressing these non-eating disorder specific mechanisms more directly may be necessary to optimize treatment response and sustain improvements over time.
Calugi et al. (Wed,) studied this question.