Davey, Emily;
(2024)
Low intensity, transdiagnostic psychological treatment for children and young people with eating disorders: Development and evaluation.
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).
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Abstract
Eating disorders are serious mental health conditions prevalent in children and young people. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated symptoms and increased the incidence of diagnoses in this population. While effective psychological treatments exist, they are resource-intensive, and services cannot meet the unprecedented demand. Treatment delay can lead to profound and enduring consequences. To meet the demand for treatment quickly and effectively, it is essential to develop and deliver less-resource intensive interventions that are scientifically supported, accessible and scalable. The primary purpose of this thesis is to develop a low intensity, transdiagnostic psychological intervention for children and young people with eating disorders, specifically CBT guided self-help. The secondary purpose is to evaluate the intervention in a small proof-of-concept pilot study. This thesis comprises eight chapters. Chapters One to Four lay the foundation for intervention development. Chapter One provides the background and rationale for the research. Chapter Two presents a systematic review and meta-analysis of low intensity psychological interventions for eating disorders, which identified only one intervention for adolescents. Chapter Three reports on an experts’ consensus statement, which concluded that low intensity psychological interventions are suitable for a range of eating disorder presentations across all ages. Chapter Four presents key stakeholders’ perspectives on guided self-help specifically for children and young people. Chapter Five then describes the systematic process used to develop the intervention, which draws on preceding chapter findings. Chapters Six and Seven focus on the evaluation of the intervention – a proof-of-concept pilot study. Chapter Six outlines the study protocol, while Chapter Seven presents the results, including the outcomes of six participants, two detailed case illustrations, and qualitative feedback. Overall, the results indicate that the guided self-help intervention is feasible, acceptable, and produces clinical benefits. The thesis concludes with Chapter Eight, which discusses its clinical implications and proposes directions for further research.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | Ph.D |
| Title: | Low intensity, transdiagnostic psychological treatment for children and young people with eating disorders: Development and evaluation |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2024. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > UCL GOS Institute of Child Health |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10199065 |
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