Complex Cases and Comorbidity in Eating Disorders: Assessment and Management

In this book the authors share the strategies and procedures they use in their clinical daily practice to assess and treat complex cases of eating disorders. The strategic and pragmatic approach to the management of medical and psychiatric comorbidity coexisting with eating disorders, while relying on enhanced cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT-E) - an evidence-based treatment recommended for all eating disorder categories both in adults and adolescents-, can also be used by clinicians who adhere to different theoretical models.

The book is divided into two main parts. Part I describes the eating disorder psychopathology and its consequences: an essential knowledge essential to understanding whether the patients have true comorbidity or spurious comorbidity. Then it gives an overview of CBT-E and how to implement it at different levels of care and in a multidisciplinary team. Part II illustrates the general strategies to address comorbidity in patients with eating disorders, and the specific strategies and procedures for managing the most common mental and general medical conditions coexisting with eating disorders.

This volume is a valuable and useful tool for all clinicians - endocrinologists, nutritionists, dietitians, psychologists, psychiatrists - who deal with obesity and eating disorders.

Riccardo Dalle Grave, MD, is Director of the Department of Eating and Weight Disorders at Villa Garda Hospital in Verona, Italy. In this department, Dr. Dalle Grave has developed an original treatment for the eating disorder based entirely on the enhanced cognitive behavior therapy (CBT-E), in particular the adaptation of outpatient CBT-E for adolescents and for intensive settings. He also developed the personalized cognitive behavior therapy for obesity (CBT-OB). His current research includes assessing the effectiveness of CBT-E and CBT-OB in the treatment of adults and adolescents with eating disorders or obesity in both outpatient and inpatient settings. Dr. Dalle Grave is editor of the CBT-E website (www.cbte.co) and Director of the Advanced Training Course on the Treatment and Prevention of Eating Disorders and Obesity sponsored by the Italian Eating and Weight Disorder Association (AIDAP). He also provides CBT-E supervision for clinical services in Europe, the United States, Australia, and the Middle East. Dr. Dalle Grave is a Fellow of the Academy of Eating Disorders, serves on the editorial boards of several journals in the field, and published about 150 peer-reviewed articles. He is also authors of several books and book chapters, worth mentioning “Treating obesity with personalized cognitive behavioral therapy, Springer, 2018”

Massimiliano Sartirana is a clinical psychologist at the Department of Eating and Weight Disorders at Villa Garda Hospital, Verona (Italy). He has a long clinical experience in the treatment of eating disorders and collaborated with dr. Dalle Grave in adapting the enhanced cognitive behavior therapy (CBT-E) E for adolescents with eating disorders. He is a member of the online CBT-E training group (www.cbte.co) and is on the teaching faculties of the Italian Advanced Training Course on the Treatment and Prevention of Eating Disorders and Obesity, and several Italian cognitive behavior-based psychotherapyschools. He published many books in Italian on eating disorders, obesity, low self-esteem, perfectionism, and co-authored the book “Treating obesity with personalized cognitive behavioral therapy, Springer, 2018”. He also published 25 peer-reviewed articles.

Simona Calugi, Ph.D, Verona (Italy). Within this department, in collaboration with Dr. Riccardo Dalle Grave, she is involved in assessing the efficacy of intensive enhanced cognitive behavior therapy (CBT-E) and outpatient CBT-E for adults and adolescents. Dr. Calugi’s current research focus is evaluating CBT-E in the treatment of adult and adolescent patients with eating disorders who are significantly underweight, both in outpatient and inpatient settings, and studying specific and external maintenance mechanisms of eating-disorder psychopathology. She is a member of the online CBT-E training group (www.cbte.co) and is on the teaching faculties of the Italian Advanced Training Course on the Treatment and Preventionof Eating Disorders and Obesity, and several Italian cognitive behavior-based psychotherapy schools. She has extensive clinical experience in delivering outpatient CBT-E to adolescent and adult patients with eating disorders. She is also president of the Italian Eating and Weight Disorder Association (AIDAP) and published about 140 peer-reviewed articles. She co-authored the book “Treating obesity with personalized cognitive behavioral therapy, Springer, 2018”