Change in Defensive Functioning Following Group Psychodynamic-Interpersonal Psychotherapy in Women With Binge-Eating Disorder

We examined change in defensive functioning following group psychodynamic-interpersonal psychotherapy (GPIP) for binge-eating disorder (BED) compared to a waitlist control. We hypothesized that defensive functioning will improve to a greater extent at posttreatment for those in GPIP compared with those in a waitlist control condition. Participants were women with BED assigned to GPIP (n = 131) or a waitlist control (n = 44) condition in a quasi-experimental design. Those who received GPIP had significantly greater improvements in defensive functioning from pretreatment to six months posttreatment compared to the control group. GPIP may be effective for improving defensive functioning in individuals with BED. A randomized controlled trial is needed to confirm that GPIP is efficacious for addressing defensive functioning among women with BED.