5.1.4 AN Case studies- Luk & Agoha (2014) Flashcards
Aim?
Describe he experience of a Chinese-American 15 yr old girl w AN using case study design, considering culture
Method?
-Single case study, retrospective view of 1 Chinese- American teen girl w AN and her experiences
- Single case report- bring understanding to a complex issue
- Adding to prev research
Procedure?
- Amy was 15 and admitted to the Inpatient Child Psychiatric unit for further care with a BMI of 11.8
- She suffered body dysmorphia, amenorrhea, and cold intolerance
- She underwent individual therapy, group therapy, daily weigh-ins, and monitoring of meals
- She was discharged 3 months later but got readmitted 2 more times in 6 months due to not maintaining body weight
-On her 3rd admission Amy was assigned a in-home therapist of the same culture who visited regularly to help with tension during family meals - Visited China 10 months post-discharge and discontinued the fluoxetine while there
Describe the results.
- Found that the main cause of the eating disorder was due to an overbearing mother who wouldn’t cater to Amy’s dietary preferences
- With the therapists help of balancing food options for Amy and reducing tension at family meals she started to gain more weight
- After visiting China Amy remained asymptomatic but still refused meals with her family
Describe the conclusions of this case study.
- Amy’s anorexia was a result of rejecting her parents and their different culture not the desire to be thin
- Visit to China improved her autonomy and relationship with parents who gave her more freedom that allowed her to develop her sense of identity
GRAVE- Generalisability
P- Sample- narrow
E- Case study of single female Chinese- American pp of 15 yrs
E- W, unrepresentative of male, older than adolsecent, and other cultural groups for AN. So may not be applicable to use Amy’s case study as evidence for effectiveness of AN treatments and specific AN symptoms in terms of inability to apply to male, older, multi-cultural backgrounds for those suffering with AN.
GRAVE- Reliability
1.P- Low
E- Amy’s case was unique due to not having desire to be thin, but began as a rejection of her mother’s meals because of rejecting her Chinese heritage
E- W, can’t replicate study, it’s unethical to cause familial relationship problems to test for consistency
2.P- High
E- Triangulation was used; looked at multiple perspectives of Amy’s behaviour/ AN symptoms eg psychiatrist, family (esp her mother), hospital carers, nutritionist
E- S, provides evidence bc if the mult POVs for her symptoms link to her medical records consistently, then this can be used for future research as its reliable (test re-test due to consistency) for comparison to other data for AN
GRAVE- Application
P- Yes
E- Found out the cause of her AN was lack of maternal care and a ‘culture clash’ whereby she rejected her Chinese heritage bc of embarrassment by rejecting her mother’s food
link- if this worsened, leading to AN eg, descriptive dieting
E- S, provides framework for parents & those from multi-cultural backgrounds to observe behaviours of AN & implement intervention/ treatment/ diagnosis eg refusal of meals to prevent a development of AN
GRAVE- Validity
1.P- High
E- Tested Amy’s BMI before, during & after exp eg before (11.8) after/ post hospital release (18.5)
ES, data was quantitative and objectively measured, decr researcher bias and providing evidence for the effectiveness of treatments eg hospitalisation for AN
2.P- Low
E- Self report data used, Amy may’ve not reported all info abt her symptoms due to not wanting to experience re-hospitalisation
E- W, lack of patient honesty can lead to misdiagnosis/ premature leave from hospital, due to symptoms related back to AN not being identified. This could lead to diagnosis of ‘AN in remission’, but w no suffiecient treatment for Amy’s/ patients’ AN.
GRAVE- Ethics
