The perception of food size and food shape in anorexia nervosa.

Visual perception of food size and shape in anorexia nervosa (AN) is an understudied topic, notwithstanding its relevance in approaching food, key-element in weight restoration. In addition, it is unclear how visual perception in AN is related to the age and the duration of illness. Here, we compared patients with AN to healthy controls (HCs) on their spatial resolution, biases in perceived food size, and holistic processing of food shape.

Therapeutic alliance in inpatients with severe anorexia nervosa.

Objective: Therapeutic alliance (TA) is a relevant aspect in anorexia nervosa (AN), but data on inpatients are lacking. We aimed to evaluate the influence of motivation to change, diagnostic subtypes, and duration of illness on TA at hospital discharge; we also investigated if baseline clinical characteristics were associated with discharge TA, and the TA-outcome association.

Method: We enrolled 137 adult inpatients with AN completing Eating Disorder Examination-Questionnaire, Beck Depression Inventory, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, Anorexia Nervosa Stages of Change-Questionnaire, EuroQoL-Quality of Life Scale-Visual Analogue Scale, and Working Alliance Inventory-Short Revised.