Food Addiction Clinical Treatment Program

Pilot Investigation of a Novel Therapeutic Intervention for Food Addiction: Food Addiction Clinical Treatment (FACT) Program

The purpose of this current study is to establish the feasibility of, and preliminary support for, a clinical treatment program utilizing interventions from various empirically supported treatments for obesity-related eating disorders and substance use disorders

To establish the feasibility of recruiting, enrolling, and treating individuals who meet criteria for FA in a group behavioral intervention for 16 weeks. Data from the current study will be used for the purposes of further exploration of the FACT program in a larger randomized controlled trial. We hypothesize the study will demonstrate the feasibility of evaluating this treatment in future studies

Inclusion Criteria:

• Age > 25
• BMI >25
• YFAS > 6/11 (severe range)
• willing to commit to a 16 week group therapy program from 4 - 5:30 pm on Thursdays in Winston-Salem, NC
• English speaking

Exclusion Criteria:

• Current participation in professional weight loss program and unwillingness to suspend it for 16 weeks during treatment
• obesity medications with exception of diabetes medication with weight loss benefit (ie metformin),
• current nicotine use or substance use disorder (based on meeting the clinical cutoff for the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test and/or Cannabis Use Disorder Identification Test
• history of weight loss surgery,
• current/history of severe mental illness (> 3 psychiatric hospitalizations since age 18,
• schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder, psychotic disorder, or personality disorder),
• current/history of lithium, abilify, saphris, vraylor, clozaril, latuda, zyprexa, seroquel, risperdal, or Geodon,
• current pregnancy or breastfeeding,
• prior diagnosis of anorexia nervosa, diagnosis of bulimia nervosa in the last 5 years,
• high currents rates of restrictive eating disorder symptoms based on the Eating Disorder Diagnosis Scale (EDDS; (i.e., any endorsement of vomiting or laxative/diuretic use to manage weight and endorsement of fasting or excessive exercise more than 2 or 3 times a week)