Research Support
Wellspring Camps were developed based on the accumulated wisdom gathered from hundreds of studies on the treatment of weight problems. Reviews of this literature showed that the attempts to help people lose weight that were used prior to 1965, like psychoanalysis, did not work well at all. In the mid-1960s behavioral scientists started applying principles of learning to weight problems and began showing some promising results. Leonard Epstein, Ph.D., who is currently a professor of psychology at the University of Buffalo showed that treatments based on systematic attempts to help people change the way they think and behave (cognitive-behavioral therapy or CBT) could help children lose weight and keep it off for ten years. Our clinical director, Dr. Daniel Kirschenbaum, also published related work with children and their families.
Although long-term results examining effects of CBT delivered in offices and schools showed some promise, most participants in such programs (children and adults) regained weight lost during the programs when followed up over a year or more. A few studies examined the effects of immersing people in camp settings to see if removing participants from the challenges of our obesogenic culture and related influences might have more dramatic effects. Initial studies of these immersion programs seemed promising. Our own results, first presented at an international scientific conference in the fall of 2005, North American Association for the Study of Obesity, extended those promising findings, showing the most substantial weight losses in children and adolescents ever reported in the literature.
We relied on the following books for reviews of the scientific literature in addition to hundreds of journal articles to help us create Wellspring Camps:
Brownell, K.D., & Fairburn, C.G (1995). (Eds.) Eating Disorders and Obesity: A Comprehensive Handbook. NY: Guilford.
Kirschenbaum, D.S., Johnson, W.G., & Stalonas, P.M. (1987). Treatment of Childhood and Adolescent Obesity. NY: Pergamon.
LeBow, M.D. (1984). Child Obesity: A New Frontier of Behavior
Therapy. NY: Springer.
Perri, M.G., Nezu, A.M., & Viegener, B.J. (1992). Improving the Long-Term Management of Obesity: Theory, Research and Clinical Guidelines. NY: Wiley.
Wadden, T.A., & Stunkard, A.J. (2002). Handbook of Obesity
Treatment. NY: Guilford.
For more information on Wellspring's scientific foundations, please click here.
