CBC Behavioral Care 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A patient six months post-sleeve gastrectomy reports eating small amounts of food continuously throughout the day when stressed. Which maladaptive eating pattern does this describe?
- Grazing (Correct answer)
- Binge eating disorder
- Night eating syndrome
- Plugging
Correct answer: Grazing
Grazing is the repeated consumption of small amounts of food over extended periods, a common post-surgical maladaptive pattern often triggered by emotion.
Question 2: In motivational interviewing with a bariatric patient ambivalent about exercise, which counselor response best exemplifies reflective listening?
- "It sounds like part of you wants to be more active, but you're worried about joint pain." (Correct answer)
- "You really need to start walking daily or your weight loss will stall."
- "Why haven't you followed the exercise plan we discussed?"
- "Most patients who don't exercise regain their weight within two years."
Correct answer: "It sounds like part of you wants to be more active, but you're worried about joint pain."
Reflective listening mirrors the patient's own ambivalence without judgment, a core motivational interviewing skill.
Question 3: Which behavioral strategy involves a patient recording everything they eat, along with hunger levels and emotions, to identify eating triggers?
- Self-monitoring (Correct answer)
- Stimulus control
- Cognitive restructuring
- Contingency management
Correct answer: Self-monitoring
Self-monitoring through food and mood journals is a foundational behavioral technique for building awareness of eating triggers.
Question 4: A bariatric counselor notices a post-operative patient has replaced compulsive eating with excessive alcohol use. This phenomenon is best described as:
- Addiction transfer (Correct answer)
- Dumping syndrome
- Food aversion
- Behavioral extinction
Correct answer: Addiction transfer
Addiction transfer (cross-addiction) occurs when one compulsive behavior is substituted for another, and alcohol risk is elevated after bariatric surgery.
Question 5: Which cognitive distortion is a patient displaying when they say, "I ate one cookie, so my whole diet is ruined and I might as well quit"?
- All-or-nothing thinking (Correct answer)
- Catastrophizing about health
- Emotional reasoning
- Personalization
Correct answer: All-or-nothing thinking
All-or-nothing (dichotomous) thinking frames a single lapse as total failure, a distortion strongly linked to diet abandonment.
Question 6: According to the Transtheoretical Model, a patient who says "I plan to start preparing healthier meals within the next month and have bought a cookbook" is in which stage of change?
- Preparation (Correct answer)
- Contemplation
- Precontemplation
- Maintenance
Correct answer: Preparation
The preparation stage involves intending to act within roughly 30 days and taking small concrete steps toward change.
Question 7: Stimulus control as a weight-management technique would most directly involve which of the following?
- Removing high-calorie snack foods from visible kitchen counters (Correct answer)
- Rewarding oneself with a movie after a week of exercise
- Challenging negative thoughts about body image
- Practicing diaphragmatic breathing before meals
Correct answer: Removing high-calorie snack foods from visible kitchen counters
Stimulus control modifies the environment to reduce cues that trigger unwanted eating behavior.
CBC Behavioral Care 2
A patient six months post-sleeve gastrectomy reports eating small amounts of food continuously throughout the day when stressed.
Which maladaptive eating pattern does this describe?