Cognitive Remediation and Emotion Skills Training (CREST) for anorexia nervosa in individual format: self-reported outcomes

Background: To evaluate self-reported outcomes after a brief course of skills-based individual therapy for inpatients with anorexia nervosa ( AN). Methods: In this case series study 37 adults with AN participated in cognitive remediation and emotion skills training ( CREST) sessions, and completed social anhedonia, alexithymia and motivational measures before and after the intervention. Results: The CREST primary outcome measures were total scores on the Revised Social Anhedonia Scale (RSAS), which decreased significantly (p = 0.03) with an effect size of 0.31, and the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS), which also decreased significantly (p = 0.05) with an effect size of 0.35. The secondary outcome measures focused on motivation: perceived 'importance to change' and 'ability to change'; the second of which increased significantly (p < 0.001) with a medium effect size (d = 0.71). Conclusions: The individual format of CREST led to a decrease in patients' self-reported social anhedonia, an improvement in the ability to label their emotions, and increased confidence in their ability to change. Considering the limited number of individual sessions, this is a promising preliminary finding which warrants further research.