ReviewJournal of eating disorders2026
The effects of waiting time for outpatient psychotherapeutic interventions on patient-reported outcomes in adolescents and adults with eating disorders: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Review in Journal of eating disorders, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
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Abstract
objectiveTo assess the effects of waiting time for outpatient psychotherapeutic interventions on patient-reported outcomes in adolescents and adults with eating disorders.
methodMEDLINE, Embase, APA PsycInfo, CENTRAL and BASE were searched on 12 August 2025. Quantitative studies of adolescents (≥ 10 years) and adults with eating disorders that examined waitlist conditions prior to outpatient psychotherapeutic interventions and measured eating disorder pathology with the Children's Eating Attitudes Test (chEAT) or Eating Disorder Examination-Questionnaire (EDE-Q) were eligible. Risk of bias was assessed using the RoB 2 and ROBINS-I tools. A within-group random-effects meta-analysis was performed assessing pre-post change scores of the EDE-Q Global Score (primary analysis) and EDE-Q subscales (secondary analyses). A full protocol has been pre-registered on PROSPERO (registration number: CRD420251090691).
resultsNine waitlist-controlled studies (total n = 647, waitlisted n = 283) including adult participants with bulimia nervosa, binge-eating disorder and 'eating disorder not otherwise specified' met our eligibility criteria. Eight studies (waitlisted n = 273) were included in the meta-analysis. Participants entered the waiting period with high EDE-Q Global Scores, ranging from 3.08 to 4.65 across studies. The pooled pre-post effect estimate was Hedges' g = - 0.17 (95% CI - 0.30 to - 0.05), indicating a negligible reduction in eating disorder pathology. Certainty of evidence was rated as moderate, given the high risk of bias across studies. DISCUSSION: Based on our results, waiting in waitlist control groups represents a period during which substantial eating disorder pathology and associated distress persist without therapeutic intervention. Further research is needed to better understand the effects of waiting time for regular eating disorder treatment outside a study setting.
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