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Self-Induced Vomiting: II. Methods of Behaviour Therapy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Peter Slade*
Affiliation:
Royal Free Hospital; Liverpool University
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When confronted with patients who indulge in frequent self-induced vomiting one has to ask oneself the question ‘why do they do it?’ At the simplest level the answer to this question is that there are clear advantages to the patient from this behaviour. Patients can indulge their cravings for food to excess while at the same time avoiding the consequences in terms of weight gain. They can literally ‘have their cake and eat it’. The first therapeutic requirement is therefore to convince the patient that the disadvantages of self-induced vomiting, in terms of effects on physical health, far outweigh these benefits. Let us assume that we have been successful in this respect; the next step is to undertake a behavioural analysis.

Type
Annual Meeting 1977: Abstracts of Papers
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1977

References

Stuart, R. B. (1967) Behavioural control of overeating. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 5, 537–65.Google Scholar
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