Efficacy of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy on Body Image, Psychological Distress, and Eating Disorder Beliefs in Patients with Anorexia Nervosa

Background: anorexia nervosa is a refusal to maintain the lowest normal body weight, a severe fear of weight gain, and a significant impairment in body image.objectives: the purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of cognitive behavior therapy on anorexic patients' psychological distress, body image, and eating disorder beliefs in anorexic patients.methods: this was a semi-experimental study based on a pre-test, post-test, and follow-up design with a control group. the statistical population of the study included patients with eating disorders who were referred to obesity treatment centers in tehran, from whom 30 patients were selected using a purposeful sampling method and were randomly assigned to two groups of experiment and control. before the intervention, the eating disorder beliefs questionnaire was used as a pre-test. after then, the experimental group received the intervention (no intervention was carried out on the control group). the body image concern inventory, psychological distress questionnaire, and eating disorder beliefs questionnaire were used to gather the data. multivariate covariance analysis was used to examine the data using the spss program (version 22).results: according to the findings, cognitive behavior therapy helped anorexic patients with their psychological distress (p<0.001), body image issues (p<0.001), and eating disorder beliefs (p<0.001), respectively.conclusion: it is evident that cognitive behavior therapy helps anorexic patients by lowering psychological discomfort, issues with their bodies, and ideas about eating disorders.