A Pilot Study of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Rumination Disorder

Rumination disorder (RD; also known as "rumination syndrome") is a disordered eating behavior characterized by the repeated regurgitation of food during or soon after eating. The frequency of repeated regurgitation of food typically occurs at least a few times per week, frequently daily with subsequent re-chewing, re-swallowing, or spitting out of the regurgitated material. The widely used technique for treatment of RD has typically been diaphragmatic breathing, which works by serving as a competing response to abdominal wall contractions, which is hypothesized to trigger regurgitation. However, the efficacy of diaphragmatic breathing remains unknown and has mainly been delivered through a one-session instruction with an occasional follow-up.

In the absence of evidence-based treatments for RD, the investigators, alongside a collaboration with Dr. Jennifer Thomas at the Eating Disorders Clinical and Research Program (EDCRP) at Massachusetts General Hospital, have created a manualized treatment, Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Rumination Disorder (CBT-RD) informed by published case reports and currently in use at EDCRP at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Psychological Services Center at Drexel University. CBT-RD targets the habitual contraction of the abdominal wall and preceding events through the use of habit reversal, using primarily diaphragmatic breathing as a competing response.

This study involves a phone screen to determine eligibility, followed by 5-8 sessions of CBT-RD (approximately 50 minutes each). A battery of questionnaires will be administered at pre-treatment, post-treatment, and 3-month follow-up intervals.