2.2.2. Treatment

As described elsewhere [9,52], patients diagnosed with AN attended a day hospital treatment program, including CBT group therapy sessions, lasting 90 min each, for 15 weeks. Treatment for the other ED diagnosis (BN, BED, and OSFED) consisted of 16 weekly outpatients CBT group therapy sessions, lasting 90 min each. Patients were re-evaluated at discharge and categorized as either in full remission (i.e., total absence of symptoms meeting criteria for at least 4 weeks), partial remission (i.e., a substantial symptomatic improvement but with residual symptoms), and non-remission. These categories were previously used as the threshold to assess treatment outcomes in patients with EDs [9,19,52]. The treatment outcomes categories were based on the judgments of senior clinical staff considering normalization of nutritional dietary patterns, frequency of binge episodes and compensatory behaviors, weight restoration, and improvement in attitudes regarding weight and shape. Voluntary treatment discontinuation was categorized as dropout (i.e., not attending treatment for at least three consecutive sessions). Patients were subdivided into two groups depending on their treatment outcome. Those who showed full or partial remission of their symptoms were included in the good outcome group (*n* = 166; 71.2%), and those who did not show remission or abandoned the treatment were included in the bad outcome group (*n* = 67; 28.8%). The treatment results obtained were similar to those reported previously [53].
