Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy added to usual care improves eating behaviors in patients with bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder by decreasing the cognitive load of words related to body shape, weight, and food.

Background: This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) as a complementary approach in patients with bulimia nervosa (BN) or binge eating disorder (BED), and to assess how the reduction of the cognitive load of words related to eating disorders (ED) could constitute an intermediate factor explaining its global efficacy.

Methods: Eighty-eight women and men participated in clinical assessments upon inscription, prior to and following 8-week group MBCT. Mindfulness skills were assessed using the five facet mindfulness questionnaire; eating behaviors were assessed using the Three Factor Eating Questionnaire (TFEQ); comorbid pathologies were assessed using the beck depression index and the state-trait anxiety inventory.

[New therapeutic approaches in anorexia nervosa].

New therapeutic approaches in anorexia nervosa. Anorexia nervosa is characterized by nutritional, somatic and psychiatric symptoms that require multidisplinary approaches. New therapeutic approaches have the increase the quality of the alliance between the patient and the therapist, and therefore facilitate the commitment process (such as with to motivational therapy); these therapies also aim at facilitating mental flexibility, increase central coherence, elaborate new strategies to resolve problems (such as with cognitive remediation and mindfulness based cognitive therapy), and reinforcement of family ressources (during marriage and family therapy).

Levels of autistic traits in anorexia nervosa: a comparative psychometric study.

Background: A number of characteristics associated with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are over-represented among patients with Anorexia Nervosa (AN) as well as among relatives of these patients. Yet the co-occurrence of autistic traits in AN has not been fully explored and no previous study has directly compared self-reported evaluations of cognitive and socio-affective skills in AN and ASD.

Methods: We aimed to determine the degree of overlap between AN and ASD from scores on questionnaires classically used to measure ASD impairments.

Underweight patients with anorexia nervosa: comparison of bioelectrical impedance analysis using five equations to dual X-ray absorptiometry.

Background & Aims: Body weight changes do not reflect the respective changes of body compartments, namely fat-free mass (FFM) and fat mass (FM). Both bioelectrical Impedance Analysis (BIA) and the Dual X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) measure FFM and FM. This study in underweight patients with anorexia nervosa (AN) aims to compare measurements of FM and FFM done by DXA and BIA using 5 different BIA equations already validated in healthy population and to identify the most suitable BIA equation for AN patients.