Ghislaine Schyns, Assistant Professor
Ghislaine’s research focuses on interventions for eating disorders and obesity, and also on prevention of obesity in youth. She is particularly invested in investigating the effects and working mechanisms of exposure therapy as treatment for overeating, but also interested in the more fundamental role of learning processes and the role of cognitive behavioral processes involved in overeating habits. In addition to tackling individuals’ ‘coping skills’ in a ‘toxic obesogenic environment’ that promotes unhealthy lifestyles, she also focuses on measuring the impact of environmental factors, and intervening on these factors with the aim to make this toxic environment less toxic, more health-promoting. One factor that she’s especially interested in, is the role of sleep and the relationship with healthy lifestyles.
Publications that I’m most proud of
Exposure therapy vs lifestyle intervention to reduce food cue reactivity and binge eating in obesity: A pilot study. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 2020.
This experiment tested the effects and working mechanisms of eight sessions of cue exposure therapy in overweight and obese adults. We found that exposure reduced overeating of foods included in therapy, binge eating and weight loss. In contrast to the widely adopted theory on the importance of habituation of food cravings for exposure outcomes, we found that stronger habituation of food cravings was not associated with less overeating. However, we found that overeating-related cognitions were associated with reduced overeating, providing evidence for the importance of changing such cognitions during exposure for better treatment outcome.
What works better? Food cue exposure aiming at the habituation of eating desires or food cue exposure aiming at the violation of overeating expectancies? Behaviour Research and Therapy, 2018.
To elucidate the working mechanisms and clinical target of exposure therapy, 52 obese females were randomized into an exposure condition aimed at habituation of food cravings, an exposure condition aimed at expectancy violation, or a no-treatment control condition. While food cue exposure in obese women led to less overeating, focusing on either habituation or expectancy violation did not matter. These findings are of great clinical utility, suggesting that doing cue exposure, regardless of its specific focus, is effective to decrease food desires, overeating expectancies, and food intake.
Handbook Exposure, 2020
This invited book chapter in the exposure handbook for Dutch clinical psychologists aims at improving evidence-based care for obesity and eating disorders by providing a manual on how to use and improve exposure therapy in clinical practice.
