SynthesisThe International journal of eating disorders2026
A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Psychological Therapies for Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID) in Adolescents and Adults.
Synthesis in The International journal of eating disorders, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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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.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Psychological Therapies for Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID) in Adolescents and Adults.The International journal of eating disorders · 2026Pooled it
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveThe efficacy of psychological therapies for adolescents and adults with avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID) has yet to be rigorously analyzed through systematic review or meta-analysis.
methodWe identified articles from seven databases that presented psychological therapies for adolescents and adults with ARFID. First, our systematic review explored characteristics of psychological interventions, clinical team composition, changes in dietary intake, and methodological quality. Second, we conducted a meta-analysis to quantify effect sizes for two primary outcomes (ARFID psychopathology and weight gain) and two secondary outcomes (anxiety and depression) from pretreatment to posttreatment.
resultsForty articles included in the systematic review identified a variety of psychological interventions that led to increased dietary variety. Most studies were of high quality. Of these, 17 articles met the inclusion criteria for the meta-analysis. Across studies, adolescents and adults with ARFID showed significant improvements from pretreatment to posttreatment including medium-size reductions in ARFID psychopathology (g = 0.63, p < 0.001), large increases in weight (g = 1.26, p < 0.001), medium-size reductions in anxiety (g = 0.42, p < 0.001), and small reductions in depression (g = 0.34, p < 0.05). DISCUSSION: This systematic review and meta-analysis highlights promising preliminary outcomes of psychological therapies for adolescents and adults with ARFID across multiple domains. However, the current evidence base is small and primarily reliant on case studies and case series, with very few quasi-experimental or randomized designs. As such, studies with larger sample sizes utilizing randomized control trial designs are needed to provide a more rigorous evaluation of psychological therapies for ARFID.
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Registered trials
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