Self-Help Approaches for Obesity and Eating Disorders: Research and Practice

Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic

"Addresses a crucial need in the literature....Useful for practitioners and researchers."--Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic

From the Publisher

"This volume offers the first scholarly review of the full palette of self-help interventions for obesity, binge eating, and related conditions. It is a virtual treasure trove for researchers and clinicians in the field. Anyone thinking of embarking on a study or recommending a self-help treatment should familiarize himself or herself with this volume first. The authors cast a critical eye on evidence-based and popular self-help methods and provide a balanced and critical appraisal of efficacy and outcome."--Cynthia M. Bulik, Jordan Distinguished Professor of Eating Disorders, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill "Latner and Wilson are to be congratulated for this excellent work. Self-help approaches, both supervised and unsupervised, have received increasing attention over the last decade for both binge eating and obesity. This scholarly yet practical volume pulls together the breadth of current knowledge. It will be of considerable interest to practitioners and researchers in the areas of obesity and eating disorders. It is also an informative, clinically useful reference for physicians and other health care professionals, many of whom now have clinical practices that are dominated by obesity-related problems."--James E. Mitchell, MD, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences "This book is an extremely useful resource for clinicians and researchers. It provides a thoughtful, scholarly, and critical review of a wide array of self-help tools available to individuals struggling with weight control and eating disorders. It will help clinicians quickly determine which of the many available options have the strongest empirical support, as well as for whom the various interventions work best. Because of the excellent scholarship and comprehensive coverage, the book will also be very useful for researchers who are developing and evaluating treatments for these conditions. It should be very useful as a text in advanced courses in mental health or public health interventions for obesity and eating disorders. The coverage of computer-assisted self-help interventions is a particularly novel aspect of this text."--Eric Stice, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Austin "This is a timely book: It is clear that self-help has an important place in the treatment of weight and eating concerns, yet knowledge of best practices has not yet been well disseminated. Written by leading exerts in the field, each chapter stands on its own, permitting the reader to gain an in-depth appreciation of self-help approaches for specific target groups or problems. The authors provide compelling testimony of the efficacy of self-help approaches. As the book illustrates, self-help can be used as the sole treatment, as a preparatory step for more intensive treatment, as an adjunct treatment, or as a follow-up to a successful course of treatment in efforts to solidify gains and prevent relapse. Healthcare professionals and students will find this book a valuable resource for program development or clinical care of individuals with eating and weight concerns."--Ruth Striegel-Moore, PhD, Department of Psychology, Wesleyan University

Social Service Review

"A timely and comprehensive review of self-help interventions for obesity,