This systematic review addresses treatment of persons who suffer from both an eating disorder and diabetes. Relevant interventions include structured treatment with a focus on control of blood sugar and regular meals, and/or in combination with psychological treatment.

Our main conclusion is that there is too little available evidence to make clear conclusions about the effect of any of the treatments. Nor whether there is different effect on people who suffer different combinations of eating disorder and type of diabetes. Treatment with psychoeducation was studied in four small trials with a total of 152 participants. The results show that:

For women who both binge eat and have diabetes type 2, weekly group meetings over ten weeks with cognitive behavioral therapy may have a similar effect as weekly group meetings over ten weeks with another psychological therapy. The quality of this documentation is low, and our confidence in the effect estimate is limited.

For women with subclinical disordered eating and diabetes type 1 or women who suffer both bulimia and diabetes type 1, weekly group meetings or three months as inpatient with psychoeducation was reported to have an effect. The quality of this documentation is very low, and we have very little confidence in the effect estimates.

We did not find any studies of effect of treatment for gestational diabetes. We did not find any studies of effect of treatment for people who suffer from both anorexia and diabetes or any other combinations of eating disorder and diabetes.