Autonomic Arousal in Eating Disorders: Further Evidence for the Clinical Subdivision of Anorexia Nervosa

1983 ◽  
Vol 142 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Calloway ◽  
Peter Fonagy ◽  
Anthony Wakeling
Keyword(s):  
Eating Disorders ◽  
Anorexia Nervosa ◽  
Bulimia Nervosa ◽  
Skin Conductance ◽  
Skin Conductance Level ◽  
Autonomic Arousal ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Control Subjects ◽  
Skin Conductance Responses ◽  
Conductance Level

SummaryAutonomic arousal, measured by skin conductance level and response, was examined in 36 female patients with eating disorders (anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa) and 32 control subjects. No differences were found between the control group and anorexics who lost weight solely through dieting (restricting anorexics). Patients with a diagnosis of bulimia nervosa and anorexics with bulimic features, however, showed fewer spontaneous skin conductance responses and were faster to habituate to 85 dB tones than either controls or restricting anorexic patients. The pattern of findings supports recent views concerning the clinical subdivision of anorexia nervosa.

scholarly journals Selective Processing of Food– and Body–Related Information and Autonomic Arousal in Patients with Eating Disorders

1998 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 3-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Conxa Perpiña ◽  
Thierry Leonard ◽  
Janet Treasure ◽  
Alyson Bond ◽  
Rosa Baños
Keyword(s):  
Eating Disorders ◽  
Skin Conductance ◽  
Cognitive Biases ◽  
Skin Conductance Level ◽  
Color Naming ◽  
Clinical Samples ◽  
Autonomic Arousal ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Autonomic Reactivity ◽  
Related Information

Both attentional bias (using the modified Stroop Task) and autonomic reactivity (skin conductance level) to food- and body-related information were assessed in 25 patients with eating disorders (15 patients with anorexia, 10 patients with bulimia) and 18 women controls. Patients with anorexia showed the greatest interference in color-naming food-related words. However, on this occasion there were no differences in body condition, probably because of heterogeneity of clinical samples and because the control group were staff members, so the target information was very familiar to them. The groups differed in their autonomic reactivity while performing the Stroop, the patients with anorexia responded with higher skin conductance (p < .036). The discussion focuses on the differential profiles shown by samples and on the relationship between cognitive biases and autonomic arousal reactivity.

DISSOCIATION IN ANOREXIA NERVOSA AND BULIMIA NERVOSA

1994 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 385-392 ◽  
Author(s):  
John F. Schumaker ◽  
William G. Warren ◽  
Gwenda S. Schreiber ◽  
Craig C. Jackson
Keyword(s):  
Anorexia Nervosa ◽  
Bulimia Nervosa ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Degree Of Dissociation ◽  
Eating Disordered ◽  
Control Subjects ◽  
Significant Difference

The present study employed the Riley Questionnaire of Experiences of Dissociation in order to assess degree of dissociation in females diagnosed with anorexia nervosa and bulimia. The subjects consisted of 26 anorexic and 18 bulimic females, and a non eating-disordered control group of 22 females. Results indicated that eating disordered subjects, considered together, had significantly higher dissociation scores than the non eating-disordered control group. Additionally, when considered separately, both the anorexic and bulimic groups had significantly higher dissociation scores than the control subjects. No significant difference was found in the level of dissociation between anorexic and bulimic groups. These findings are discussed in relation to previous investigations and implications for possible future research and treatment.

The links between body dysmorphic disorder and eating disorders

2000 ◽  
Vol 15 (5) ◽  
pp. 302-305 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Rabe-Jablonska Jolanta ◽  
M. Sobow Tomasz
Keyword(s):  
Eating Disorders ◽  
Anorexia Nervosa ◽  
Eating Disorder ◽  
Mental Disorders ◽  
Bulimia Nervosa ◽  
Life Events ◽  
Affective Disorders ◽  
Body Dysmorphic Disorder ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Healthy Controls

SummaryThe aim of the study was to search for a body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) period preceding the symptoms meeting the criteria of either anorexia or bulimia nervosa, and an evaluation of the prevalence of BDD symptoms in a control group of girls without any eating disorder. Ninety-three girls (12–21 years old) were included in the study (36 with anorexia nervosa, 17 with bulimia nervosa and 40 healthy controls). The Structured Clinical Interview (SCID), including the BDD module, and a novel questionnaire (for the presence of preceding life events) were used. We found the symptoms of BDD in 25% of anorexia nervosa sufferers for at least six months before observing a clear eating disorder picture. Moreover, other mental disorders were also present among these patients. The results may support the idea that BDD and anorexia nervosa both belong to either OCD or affective disorders spectra.

Sexual Abuse in Patients with Eating Disorder, Patients with Depression, and Normal Controls

1995 ◽  
Vol 167 (1) ◽  
pp. 80-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine M. Vize ◽  
Peter J. Cooper
Keyword(s):  
Eating Disorders ◽  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Anorexia Nervosa ◽  
Bulimia Nervosa ◽  
Psychiatric Patients ◽  
Self Report ◽  
High Rate ◽  
Clinical Samples ◽  
Control Group ◽  
History Of

BackgroundA history of sexual abuse has been widely reported in patients with eating disorders. However, the association does not appear to be specific, because a high rate of such abuse has also been found in other psychiatric patients.MethodA standardised interview method was used to elicit details of sexual abuse in a psychiatrically normal control group and samples of patients with anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, or depression.ResultsAn equally high rate of abuse was found in all three clinical samples. Among the patients with anorexia nervosa the presence of bulimic episodes was not found to be associated with reports of abuse; and among the patients with bulimia nervosa there was no relationship between abuse and a history of anorexia nervosa. Among the patients with eating disorders, borderline personality disorder, assessed by means of self-report questionnaire, was not found to be related to reports of abuse, although there was an association between abuse and both indices of impulsive behaviour and the overall level of personality disturbance.ConclusionsChildhood sexual abuse appears to be a vulnerability factor for psychiatric disorder in general and not eating disorders in particular. The way in which abuse interacts with other aetiological factors to produce different psychopathological trajectories remains to be elucidated.

The implicit “Thin Ideal” in eating disorders

2011 ◽  
Vol 26 (S2) ◽  
pp. 720-720
Author(s):  
E. Fadda ◽  
S. Fronza ◽  
E. Galimberti ◽  
L. Bellodi
Keyword(s):  
Eating Disorders ◽  
Anorexia Nervosa ◽  
Bulimia Nervosa ◽  
Normal Weight ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Implicit Association ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Healthy Control ◽  
Negative Attributes ◽  
Concept Attribute

IntroductionGreenwald and co-workers developed The implicit Association Test (IAT) to measure implicit automatic concept-attribute associations. Evidences have suggested that Anorexia Nervosa (AN) and Bulimia Nervosa (BN) were characterized by “Ideal Thin” construct.ObjectivesThe aim of this study was the evaluation, at an implicit level, of Ideal Thin construct in a sample of Eating Disorders (ED) patients.MethodsAn “Ideal thin” Implicit Association Tests (Ideal thin IAT) has been modeled, to evaluate the implicit ideal thin in ED patients compared with an healthy control group. IAT test has been administered to a sample composed by 17 AN patients, 14 BN patients, 17 Binge Eating patients (BED) and 32 healthy controls (HC). The target categories, were “OVERWEIGHT / UNDERWEIGHT” and “POSITIVE / NEGATIVE”. Stimuli included pictures of overweight and normal weight models and positive/negative words. A positive IAT effect underlines an implicit tendency to associate the category “UNDERWEIGHT” with negative attributes, instead a negative IAT effect suggest an implicit tendency to associate the same category with positive attributes.ResultsResults showed no significant difference between HC and clinical groups in implicit “Ideal Thin construct”. All groups showed positive IAT effect. No correlations between implicit attitude and clinical variables were found.ConclusionResults show a common implicit tendency generalized in the sample to positively judge underweight. This implicit tendency was stronger in patients with Anorexia Nervosa (0,30), than patents with Bulimia Nervosa (0,41), than Healthy Control (0,42), followed by patients with BED (0,56).

Personality trait risk factors for attempted suicide among young women with eating disorders

2004 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 131-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Youssef ◽  
B. Plancherel ◽  
J. Laget ◽  
M. Corcos ◽  
M.F. Flament ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Eating Disorders ◽  
Anorexia Nervosa ◽  
Bulimia Nervosa ◽  
Young Women ◽  
Suicidal Behaviour ◽  
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory ◽  
Suicide Attempts ◽  
Risk Indicators ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Clinical Group

AbstractObjectiveClinical observations and a review of the literature led us to hypothesize that certain personality and character traits could provide improved understanding, and thus improved prevention, of suicidal behaviour among young women with eating disorders.MethodThe clinical group consisted of 152 women aged between 18 and 24 years, with DSM-IV anorexia nervosa/restrictive type (AN-R = 66), anorexia nervosa/purging type (AN-P = 37), bulimia nervosa/non-purging type (BN-NP = 9), or bulimia nervosa/purging type (BN-P = 40). The control group consisted of 140 subjects. The assessment measures were the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory—second version (MMPI-2) scales and subscales, the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) used to control for current depressive symptoms, plus a specific questionnaire concerning suicide attempts.ResultsSuicide attempts were most frequent in subjects with purging behaviour (30.0% for BN-P and 29.7% for AN-P). Those attempting suicide among subjects with eating disorders were mostly students (67.8%). For women with AN-R the scales for ‘Depression’ and ‘Antisocial practices’ represented significant suicidal risk, for women with AN-P the scales for ‘Hysteria’, ‘Psychopathic deviate’, ‘Shyness/Self-consciousness’, ‘Antisocial Practices’, ‘Obsessiveness’ and ‘Low self-esteem’ were risk indicators and for women with BN-P the ‘Psychasthenia’, ‘Anger’ and ‘Fears’ scales were risk indicators.ConclusionThis study provides interesting results concerning the personality traits of young women with both eating disorders and suicidal behaviour. Students and those with purging behaviour are most at risk. Young women should be given more attention with regard to the risk of suicide attempts if they: (a) have AN-R with a tendency to self-punishment and antisocial conduct, (b) have AN-P with multiple physical complaints, are not at ease in social situations and have antisocial behaviour, or (c) if they have BN-P and tend to be easily angered with obsessive behaviour and phobic worries. The MMPI-2 is an interesting assessment method for the study of traits indicating a risk of suicidal behaviour in young subjects, after controlling for current depressive pathology.

Coping Skills in Japanese Women with Eating Disorders

2000 ◽  
Vol 87 (3) ◽  
pp. 741-746 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rika Nakahara ◽  
Kazuhiro Yoshiuchi ◽  
Gaku Yamanaka ◽  
Tadashi Sasaki ◽  
Hiroyuki Suematsu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Eating Disorders ◽  
Anorexia Nervosa ◽  
Problem Solving ◽  
Bulimia Nervosa ◽  
Coping Skills ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Positive Reappraisal ◽  
Type Group ◽  
Dsm Iv ◽  
The Mean

The aim of this study was to investigate coping skills in the different types of eating disorders in Japan. Groups of patients with eating disorders diagnosed with DSM-IV and 22 controls were studied. Coping skills were assessed with the Stress Coping Inventory. The mean Problem-focused coping score tended to be lower in the bulimia nervosa purging-type group ( n = 20) than in the control group. The former group and the bulimia nervosa nonpurging-type group ( n = 6) used significantly less planful problem solving and less positive reappraisal coping than the control group, while the anorexia nervosa restricting-type group of 11 tended to use less positive reappraisal, and the anorexia nervosa binge-eating/purging-type ( n = 11) tended to use less planful problem solving and less positive reappraisal than the control group. As some uses of coping skills by patients with eating disorders were lower than those of the control group, developing coping skills may be useful in treatment for eating disorders in Japan.

Emotional processing and the autonomic nervous system: a comprehensive meta-analytic investigation

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pedro Silva Moreira ◽  
Pedro Chaves ◽  
Nuno Dias ◽  
Patrício Costa ◽  
Pedro Rocha Almeida
Keyword(s):  
Nervous System ◽  
Autonomic Nervous System ◽  
Skin Conductance ◽  
Emotional Processing ◽  
Skin Conductance Level ◽  
The Body ◽  
Analytic Investigation ◽  
Physiological Basis ◽  
Autonomic Nervous ◽  
Conductance Level

Background: The search for autonomic correlates of emotional processing has been a matter of interest for the scientific community with the goal of identifying the physiological basis of emotion. Despite an extensive state-of-the-art exploring the correlates of emotion, there is no absolute consensus regarding how the body processes an affective state.Objectives: In this work, we aimed to aggregate the literature of psychophysiological studies in the context of emotional induction. Methods: For this purpose, we conducted a systematic review of the literature and a meta-analytic investigation, comparing different measures from the electrodermal, cardiovascular, respiratory and facial systems across emotional categories/dimensions. Two-hundred and ninety-one studies met the inclusion criteria and were quantitatively pooled in random-effects meta-analytic modelling. Results: Heart rate and skin conductance level were the most reported psychophysiological measures. Overall, there was a negligible differentiation between emotional categories with respect to the pooled estimates. Of note, considerable amount of between-studies’ heterogeneity was found in the meta-analytic aggregation. Self-reported ratings of emotional arousal were found to be associated with specific autonomic-nervous system (ANS) indices, particularly with the variation of the skin conductance level. Conclusions: Despite this clear association, there is still a considerable amount of unexplained variability that raises the need for more fine-grained analysis to be implemented in future research in this field.

Pharmacotherapy for Eating Disorders

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan McElroy ◽  
Anna I. Guerdjikova ◽  
Nicole Mori ◽  
Paul E. Keck
Keyword(s):  
Eating Disorders ◽  
Anorexia Nervosa ◽  
Eating Disorder ◽  
Mental Disorders ◽  
Bulimia Nervosa ◽  
Binge Eating ◽  
Binge Eating Disorder ◽  
Night Eating Syndrome ◽  
Night Eating

This chapter addresses the pharmacotherapy of the eating disorders (EDs). Many persons with EDs receive pharmacotherapy, but pharmacotherapy research for EDs has lagged behind that for other major mental disorders. This chapter first provides a brief rationale for using medications in the treatment of EDs. It then reviews the data supporting the effectiveness of specific medications or medication classes in treating patients with anorexia nervosa (AN), bulimia nervosa (BN), binge eating disorder (BED), and other potentially important EDs, such as night eating syndrome (NES). It concludes by summarizing these data and suggesting future areas for research in the pharmacotherapy of EDs.

Epidemiology and Course of Eating Disorders

2010 ◽  
pp. 24-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pamela Keel
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Eating Disorders ◽  
Anorexia Nervosa ◽  
Eating Disorder ◽  
Bulimia Nervosa ◽  
The Public ◽  
Purging Disorder ◽  
Not Otherwise Specified ◽  
Public Health Significance ◽  
Health Significance

The epidemiology of eating disorders holds important clues for understanding factors that may contribute to their etiology. In addition, epidemiological findings speak to the public health significance of these deleterious syndromes. Information on course and outcome are important for clinicians to understand the prognosis associated with different disorders of eating and for treatment planning. This chapter reviews information on the epidemiology and course of anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and two forms of eating disorder not otherwise specified, binge eating disorder and purging disorder.

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