Emotion and eating in binge eating disorder and obesity.

This study compares 20 binge eaters (BED), 23 obese patients (OB) and 20 normal weight controls (CO) with regard to everyday emotions and the relationship between emotions, the desire to eat and binge eating. Modified versions of the Differential Affect Scale and Emotional Eating Scale were used and the TAS-20 and Symptom-Check-List-27 administered to assess overall psychopathology and alexithymia. BED-subjects show a more negative pattern of everyday emotions, higher alexithymia scores and the strongest desire to eat, especially if emotions are linked to interpersonal aspects.

Theory of mind deficits in chronically depressed patients.

Background: Poor theory of mind (ToM) performance has been found in patients with mood disorders, but it has not been examined in the subgroup of chronic depression where ToM deficits may be even more persistent than in acute depressive episodes. The aim of this study was to compare the ToM performance of chronically depressed patients with a healthy control group and to clarify the relation of ToM to other cognitive functions.

Methods: ToM performance was assessed in 30 chronically depressed patients and 30 matched healthy controls by two cartoon picture story tests.

Working Alliance Inventory-Short Revised (WAI-SR): psychometric properties in outpatients and inpatients.

The Working Alliance Inventory-Short Revised (WAI-SR) is a recently refined measure of the therapeutic alliance that assesses three key aspects of the therapeutic alliance: (a) agreement on the tasks of therapy, (b) agreement on the goals of therapy and (c) development of an affective bond. The WAI-SR demonstrated good psychometric properties in an initial validation in psychotherapy outpatients in the USA. The generalizability of these findings is limited because in some countries a substantial portion of individual psychotherapy is delivered in inpatient settings.

[Psychotherapeutic care in OCD outpatients--results from an anonymous therapist survey].

The aim of the present study was to investigate the actual psychotherapeutic care in OCD outpatients. All psychotherapeutic members of the Südbaden Association Of Statutory Health (n=386) were contacted to fill in an anonymous questionnaire regarding frequency of treatment and treatment strategies in OCD. Particularly, the application of exposure therapy was asked.