Feasibility of Network-Informed Personalized Treatment for Eating Disorders

Cognitive behavioral theory proposes that cognitions, behaviors, affect, and physiological symptoms interact with each other to maintain and exacerbate psychiatric disorders (Beck, 2011). Network theory identifies core symptoms that maintain and promote the spread of ED psychopathology within individuals (Borsboom & Cramer, 2013). Once identified, core "trigger" symptoms can be directly targeted to disrupt the spread or "activation" of ED behaviors, which would help patients achieve full recovery, and ultimately, prevent relapse. One of the main goals of the Personalized Treatment Study is to create an individualized network for a participant with a current eating disorder, which can be used to develop a personalized treatment intervention. Our research questions are: 1) Can a personalized treatment plan be conducted from a network analysis of patient symptoms, and 2) How effective is this personalized treatment based off of a network of symptoms.