中華心理衛生協會

Purpose: Given the lack of developmentally sensitive and empirically supported treatments available for college students with eating disorders, this case report serves as a preliminary study to examine the effectiveness of mentalization-based treatment. Methods: The participant was a female college student with an atypical eating disorder and difficulty in expressing her thoughts and forming relationships. Her symptoms included subjective bingeeating and purging (twice a week for more than three months), and intensive preoccupation with body shape and weight. Mentalization-based treatment, which assists clients in effectively differentiating their own thoughts from those of other people, was conducted. It's essential therapeutic components are empathetic understanding and differential thinking. The goals are to help the client process therapeutic experiences and life events and to connect with feelings and thoughts in order to differentiate between subjective and objective perceptions of body shape and weight, and gain competence in developmental tasks. For instance, while the client tested the limits of the therapeutic time frames, the therapist helped her connect with her feelings and thoughts and differentiate her thoughts from others. Eventually, she was able to differentiate between her subjective and objective perception of body shape and weight and became more competent in her developmental tasks. This eliminated risk factors of dysfunctional eating behaviors. Results: After treatment, the client perceived her body shape and weight accurately and the frequency of her binge eating and purging behaviors decreased (from twice per week to almost none). In addition, the client developed positive relationships with her peers and parents and established effective strategies to fulfill her goals and develop satisfactory relationships with others. Conclusions: This case study provides preliminary support for a modified version of mentalization-based treatment as a therapeutic option for female college students with an atypical eating disorder.