Digital CBTe

What is Digital CBTe and who is it for?

Only a minority of those who could benefit from psychological treatments for eating disorders receive them. Evidence-based therapist-led treatments are under increasingly scarce supply. Widening the reach is possible with a digital solution. In response to this, the Centre for Research on Eating Disorders at Oxford (CREDO) have developed Digital CBTe, a digital self-help form of enhanced cognitive behaviour therapy. The initial development was supported by funding from the Wellcome Trust and support for preliminary studies is from the NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre and an NIHR Clinical Doctoral Research Fellowship.

Digital CBTe is a cognitive-behavioural self-help programme for people with eating disorders, such as bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder, who are not underweight and who are experiencing recurrent binge eating. It is a programme-led approach designed to reach people directly via their phones and computers. It is intended for two groups in particular:

  1. Those in the early stages of an eating disorder. The goal is to help them break out of it before the problem becomes more established.
  2. Those with an established eating disorder who are unable or do not wish to access specialist therapist-led treatment. This can be for a variety of reasons including reluctance to disclose the problem, lack of local treatment resources, waiting lists, cost of treatment, and practical difficulties attending.

Digital CBTe is designed to be an engaging intervention which matches the eating problem of the person. The programme is closely derived from Enhanced Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT-E) for eating disorders (CBT-E) and its associated printed self-help programme, Overcoming Binge Eating.  It was originally developed by the Centre for Research on Eating Disorders at Oxford (CREDO), and is now provided by Credo Therapies Ltd. Credo Therapies is an innovative social impact company delivering Digital CBTe.

How can Digital CBTe be used?

Digital CBTe can currently be offered by a limited number of healthcare services who have partnered with Credo Therapies. It can be used in two ways:

  1. Pure Self-Help: Patients independently complete the programme, which can support services in various ways, including for patients on waiting lists.
  2. Guided Self-Help (GSH): Delivered alongside brief supportive sessions, it can serve as a first-line treatment for binge eating disorder and bulimia nervosa where appropriate. This option is supported by a clinician dashboard provided by Credo Therapies, enabling effective monitoring of progress.
Evaluations of Digital CBTe

Digital CBTe has been piloted for use as pure self-help or independent use for people in the community reporting features consistent with binge eating disorder and bulimia nervosa.  Read Breaking the cycle: a pilot study on autonomous Digital CBTe for recurrent binge.

 

Digital CBTe been successfully piloted in two specialist NHS eating disorder services and independently evaluated by Health Innovation Wessex.  Following these successful pilots, it is now ready for implementation in other healthcare services.

We are continuously seeking people with binge eating, health professionals and services who are interested in Digital CBTe to help us with our research. Please contact us if you are interested: credoenquiries@psych.ox.ac.uk.  In all cases please be patient as we may not have availability to include your participation at this time, but we will keep your details for future research.

Using Digital CBTe in your Clinical Service

For partnership opportunities and to commission this programme as part of your clinical service’s care pathway, please contact Dr Lisa Debrou (Clinical Psychologist) at lisa.debrou@credotherapies.com

Further reading

Murphy, R., Khera, C., & Osborne, E. L. (2025). Breaking the cycle: a pilot study on autonomous Digital CBTe for recurrent binge eating. Frontiers in digital health6, 1499350. https://doi.org/10.3389/fdgth.2024.1499350

Fairburn CG, Patel V. (2017) The impact of digital technology on psychological treatments and their dissemination. Behavior Research and Therapy, 88, 19-25.

Fairburn CG, Murphy R. (2015) Treating eating disorders using the internet. Current Opinion in Psychiatry, 28, 461-467.