Cognitive-behavioral treatment with and without exposure plus response prevention in the treatment of bulimia nervosa: a reply to Leitenberg and Rosen.

In this reply to Leitenberg and Rosen (1989), we conclude that the evidence that response prevention of vomiting adds significantly to the efficacy of cognitive-behavioral treatment of bulimia nervosa is not strong. In this context and given the finding in our previous study (Agras, Schneider, Arnow, Raeburn, & Telch, 1989) that the addition of response prevention did not increase the efficacy of cognitive-behavioral treatment and may have reduced it, we believe that our cautionary note concerning the addition of response prevention to cognitive-behavioral treatment should stand.