Clinicians' practices regarding blind versus open weighing among patients with eating disorders.
BACKGROUND
Empirically supported treatments for eating disorders, such as cognitive-behavioral therapy and family-based treatment, stress the importance of weighing patients during therapy and using this information as part of treatment. However, weighing practices vary widely across eating disorders professionals, including those that purport to provide empirically supported interventions.


OBJECTIVES
To characterize clinicians' practices regarding the decision to share (open weighing) or withhold (blind weighing) weight information with patients, a topic that has received limited prior attention.


METHOD
Clinicians (N = 114; 85% female) who regularly treat individuals with an eating disorder completed an online survey to identify factors that might impact their decision to practice blind or open weighing.


RESULTS
Approximately half of the clinicians reported generally using open weighing procedures (n = 53; 46.49%). Endorsement of cognitive-behavioral or family-based therapeutic orientation was not significantly associated with open weighing. However, clinicians who endorsed therapeutic modalities that do not specifically encourage open weighing were significantly more likely to engage in blind weighing. Clinicians working with clients with anorexia nervosa were significantly more likely to practice blind weighing, compared to clients with other eating disorder diagnoses, and cognitive or emotional impairment from malnutrition emerged as the strongest predictor of clinicians' decisions to practice blind weighing, controlling for all other variables.


DISCUSSION
Development of specific training modules may be useful for improving adherence to empirically supported protocols that recommend open weighing. More importantly, however, our results highlight the need for future treatment studies to identify whether blind or open weighing is beneficial for improving patient outcomes.
['Forbush|Kelsie T|KT|', 'Richardson|Jonathan H|JH|', 'Bohrer|Brittany K|BK|']
D000328:Adult D015928:Cognitive Behavioral Therapy D001068:Feeding and Eating Disorders D005260:Female D006801:Humans D008875:Middle Aged D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
open weighing eating disorders blind weighing adherence clinician practices therapist drift