Lower body weight is associated with less negative emotions in sad autobiographical memories of patients with anorexia nervosa

TY - JOUR

T1 - Lower body weight is associated with less negative emotions in sad autobiographical memories of patients with anorexia nervosa

AU - Brockmeyer, Timo

AU - Grosse Holtforth, Martin

AU - Bents, Hinrich

AU - Herzog, Wolfgang

AU - Friederich, Hans-Christoph

N1 - Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

PY - 2013/12/15

Y1 - 2013/12/15

N2 - Food restriction and weight-loss have been proposed to represent pathogenic mechanisms of emotion regulation in anorexia nervosa (AN). However, there is a lack of studies empirically examining this hypothesis. Therefore, the present study compared 25 women with AN and 25 healthy control women (HC) regarding spontaneous emotional processing of autobiographic memories. Participants' idiographic memories of sad autobiographic events were analyzed using computerized, quantitative text analysis as an unobtrusive approach of nonreactive assessment. Compared to HC, AN patients retrieved more negative but a comparable number of positive emotions. Moreover, the lesser the body weight in AN patients, the lesser negative emotions they retrieved, irrespective of current levels of depressive symptoms and duration of illness. No such association was found in HC. These preliminary findings are in line with models of AN proposing that food restriction and weight-loss may be negatively reinforced by the alleviation of aversive emotional responses.

AB - Food restriction and weight-loss have been proposed to represent pathogenic mechanisms of emotion regulation in anorexia nervosa (AN). However, there is a lack of studies empirically examining this hypothesis. Therefore, the present study compared 25 women with AN and 25 healthy control women (HC) regarding spontaneous emotional processing of autobiographic memories. Participants' idiographic memories of sad autobiographic events were analyzed using computerized, quantitative text analysis as an unobtrusive approach of nonreactive assessment. Compared to HC, AN patients retrieved more negative but a comparable number of positive emotions. Moreover, the lesser the body weight in AN patients, the lesser negative emotions they retrieved, irrespective of current levels of depressive symptoms and duration of illness. No such association was found in HC. These preliminary findings are in line with models of AN proposing that food restriction and weight-loss may be negatively reinforced by the alleviation of aversive emotional responses.

KW - Adult

KW - Anorexia Nervosa

KW - Autobiography as Topic

KW - Body Weight

KW - Case-Control Studies

KW - Depression

KW - Emotions

KW - Female

KW - Grief

KW - Humans

KW - Memory, Episodic

KW - Middle Aged

KW - Time Factors

U2 - 10.1016/j.psychres.2013.06.024

DO - 10.1016/j.psychres.2013.06.024

M3 - Article

C2 - 23850436

SN - 0165-1781

VL - 210

SP - 548

EP - 552

JO - Psychiatry Research

JF - Psychiatry Research

IS - 2

ER -