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Annals of General Psychiatry
Published in: Annals of General Psychiatry 1/2016

Open Access 01-12-2016 | Primary research

Intact social cognitive processes in outpatients with anorexia nervosa: a pilot study

Authors: Katarzyna Kucharska, Julia Jeschke, Reza Mafi

Published in: Annals of General Psychiatry | Issue 1/2016

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Abstract

Objective

The aim of the study was to assess social cognition in community patients suffering from anorexia nervosa (AN) compared to healthy controls.

Methods

25 women diagnosed with AN and 25 women matched for education level and age were involved in the study. Both subject groups were assessed using a set of validated experimental tasks, such as the facial expression recognition test, short recognition memory test for faces, ‘Reading the mind in the eyes’ test. Patients were assessed for symptoms of: eating disorder (the eating attitudes test—EAT-26), OCD (the Yale–Brown obsessive compulsive scale—Y-BOCS) and depression (Beck depression inventory—BDI). The research hypothesis indicated that patients suffering from anorexia represent no significant difference in social cognitive functioning in comparison to the healthy controls. These assessment scales were used to identify whether there are any problems according to social cognitive functioning especially emotion recognition and theory of mind (ToM). The primary outcome assessment was to identify social cognitive deficits in anorexic outpatients and secondary outcome was to verify whether these problems in emotional functioning found in women in acute phase of AN are state or trait effects.

Results

Anorexic patients showed significantly higher scores on EAT-26, BDI and Y-BOCS. No significant differences were found in performance of social cognitive tests and facial perception test.

Discussion

No marked alterations were found in social cognitive functioning in community patients with average body mass index (BMI) of 17.6. This may indicate that social cognition is a very complex construct to be reliably measured in anorexia nervosa considering relatively limited psychometric data for many social cognitive tasks. Further longitudinal studies are needed to untangle ongoing controversy whether social cognitive deficits in AN could be state or trait related.
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Metadata
Title
Intact social cognitive processes in outpatients with anorexia nervosa: a pilot study
Authors
Katarzyna Kucharska
Julia Jeschke
Reza Mafi
Publication date
01-12-2016
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
Annals of General Psychiatry / Issue 1/2016
Electronic ISSN: 1744-859X
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12991-016-0108-0

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