Task 7

Question 1

What is something that makes it difficult to assign a single eating disorder to one person?

Answer 1

Patients often drift between disorders

Question 2

How long does one have to go without bingeing or purging to be considered of the restrictive subtype of anorexia?

Answer 2

3 Months

Question 3

When is BMI considered abnormal?

Answer 3

When it is less than 18

Question 4

What is a common symptom of anorexia in females?

Answer 4

Amenorrhea (Absence of the period)

Question 5

What is the difference between Bulimia and the binge-eating subtype of anorexia?

Answer 5

The binge-eating subtype of anorexia is still underweight

Question 6

What effect does race have on the prevalence of eating disorders?

Answer 6

• According to the beauty ideal of the culture, the number of anorexic people can differ.
• Most common in Caucasians

Question 7

How long do people typically suffer from Anorexia?

Answer 7

7 years for women and 3 for men

Question 8

Why is Anorexia so dangerous?

Answer 8

It has a 5-9% death rate and suicide is very common

Question 9

Why are bulimic people often harder to spot?

Answer 9

They may very well be of normal weight

Question 10

What can be said about duration of Bulimia?

Answer 10

After 15 years, 50% of patients still show some symptoms.

Question 11

What is the spectrum Hypothesis and what does it criticize?

Answer 11

That all eating Disorders are the same syndrome with different manifestations.
-> Criticizes that boarders between diagnoses seems arbitrary and overly precise, and that a binge is not defined clearly enough.

Question 12

What is a trait, that might set people with AN apart from people with BN?

Answer 12

Individuals with BN tend to be more impulsive.

Question 13

Why is it difficult to develop theories about eating disorders?

Answer 13

Because they are almost impossible to research experimentally.

Question 14

Although it is often assumed, that influence from peers and the media has an influence, this cannot be taken for granted. Why?

Answer 14

Because it is unclear if it is correlation or causation, or if even the eating disorder causes exposure to certain types of media and people.

Question 15

What are two central cognitive aspects in the maintenance of an eating disorder?

Answer 15

• Internalization of thin-ideal

- Body Dissatisfaction

Question 16

What is a point of criticism against the assumption that prevalence of eating disorder is a function of ethnicity within a society?

Answer 16

It rather tends to be a function of SES and race is something that varies as a function of SES.

Question 17

How can parenting style influence the development of eating disorders?

Answer 17

If it is either too negligent or too coercive, this can trigger an eating disorder.

Question 18

What are individual factors that correlate with eating disorder? (6)

Answer 18

• Negative experiences -> Maladaptive coping strategy
• Negative Affect (high scores on guilt, hostility & anger)
• Low self-esteem
• Body Dissatisfaction
• Perfectionism
• Information processing (all or none thinking)

Question 19

What combination of neurotransmitter abnormalities might play a key role in sustaining eating restriction?

Answer 19

elevated CRH and AVP

Question 20

What seems to be the logic behind many of the biological mechanisms of eating disorders?

Answer 20

The disorder might not be biological initially, but is sustained by biological processes.

Question 21

Why might the Hypothalamus play a role in eating disorders?

Answer 21

• It receives information about the body’s food intake and nutritional levels
• It sends the message when to stop eating

Question 22

There are two subtypes of binge-eating. Explain these.

Answer 22

Dieting Subtype: Traying to maintain strict diet -> failure -> bingeing due to all-or-nothing-thinking -> purging due to guilt

Depressive Subtype: Eating as a coping mechanism

Question 23

What is something that is initially very important for the success of a psychological treatment of eating disorders?

Answer 23

Gaining the trust of the patient.

Question 24

Why is it important to involve the family in the treatment?

Answer 24

• Many patients drop out
• the patient might not be able to follow the program on their own
• parents need to learn how to take control of the child’s eating and weight

Question 25

Which treatment paradigms show the best results for BN?

Answer 25

CBT & Interpersonal Treatment

Question 26

What is a limitation of SSRIs and obesity medication in treating BN?

Answer 26

They decrease bingeing, but not the cognitive mechanisms behind it.

Question 27

What is a surprising finding of Stice et al’s study on the effect of dieting on BN?

Answer 27

Putting people on a calorie-restricted diet decreased bingeing.
This might occur, as the restrictive diet in this experiment is different than the kind of diet BN patients normally have: It is very structured and not as drastic.