Efficacy of a Mindful-eating Program to Reduce Emotional Eating

Efficacy of a Mindful Eating Program to Reduce Emotional Eating in Patients Suffering From Overweight or Obesity in Primary Care Settings: a Cluster Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial Protocol

Mindfulness-Based Interventions have been applied in different fields to improve physical and psychological health. However, little is known about its applicability and effectiveness in Spanish adults with overweight and obesity. The aim of the present study protocol is to evaluate the feasibility and efficacy of an adapted MBI programme to reduce emotional eating in adults with overweight and obesity in primary care (PC) settings.

This study is a multi-centre, two-armed randomized controlled trial (RCT), with pre-treatment, post-treatment and 1-year follow-up measures, and a 1:1 allocation rate between groups. Patients from four mental health units in Zaragoza (Spain) will be randomly assigned to two different parallel conditions, with one psychological intervention group ('ME + TAU') and usual treatment ('TAU alone') managed by their general practitioner (GP), to test the superiority of 'ME + TAU' provision compared with 'TAU alone' provision. For ethical reasons, those patients allocated to 'TAU alone' will be offered the ME programme after finishing the trial at 1-year follow-up.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Age between 45-75 years
• Have overweight or obesity condition based in BMI (Body Mass Index). Individuals with BMI of 25 or more.
• Have two of these three risk: sedentary lifestyle, poor diet and binge episodes.
• Ability to understand oral and written Spanish.
• Willingness to participate in the study and signing informed consent.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Any diagnosis of a disease that may affect the central nervous system (brain condition, traumatic brain injury, dementia, etc).
• Other psychiatric diagnoses or acute psychiatric illness (substance dependence or abuse, history of schizophrenia or other psychotic disorders, etc.), except for anxiety disorder or personality disorders.
• Presence of delusional ideas or hallucinations whether consistent or not with mood.
• Suicide risk.