Positive communication workshops: are they useful for treatment programmes for anorexia nervosa?

Background: Social isolation, loneliness and difficulties in relationships are often described as a core feature of eating disorders. Based on the experimental research, we have designed one-off workshops for patients in inpatients and day care services and evaluated its acceptability and effectiveness using feedback questionnaires.

Methods: This naturalistic project is an evaluation of multiple positive communication workshops.

Emotion Recognition in Face and Body Motion in Bulimia Nervosa.

Social cognition has been studied extensively in anorexia nervosa (AN), but there are few studies in bulimia nervosa (BN). This study investigated the ability of people with BN to recognise emotions in ambiguous facial expressions and in body movement. Participants were 26 women with BN, who were compared with 35 with AN, and 42 healthy controls.

Computerised analysis of facial emotion expression in eating disorders.

Background: Problems with social-emotional processing are known to be an important contributor to the development and maintenance of eating disorders (EDs). Diminished facial communication of emotion has been frequently reported in individuals with anorexia nervosa (AN). Less is known about facial expressivity in bulimia nervosa (BN) and in people who have recovered from AN (RecAN).

Expression of positive emotions differs in illness and recovery in anorexia nervosa.

People with Anorexia Nervosa (AN) display reduced facial expression of emotions. This study investigated the expression of positive affect in response to a film, examining Duchenne and non-Duchenne smiles in 20 women who have recovered from AN (REC), 20 with acute AN and 20 healthy controls (HC). The results indicated that the REC group exhibited Duchenne and non-Duchenne smiles with higher duration and intensity than the AN group, comparable to the HC group.

Deliberately generated and imitated facial expressions of emotions in people with eating disorders.

Background: People with eating disorders have difficulties in socio emotional functioning that could contribute to maintaining the functional consequences of the disorder. This study aimed to explore the ability to deliberately generate (i.e.

Emotion Recognition in Blended Facial Expressions in Women with Anorexia Nervosa.

People with anorexia nervosa (AN) have difficulties in the social domain, and problems in the ability to recognise emotions in people's faces may contribute to these difficulties. This study aimed to investigate emotion recognition in women with AN and healthy controls (HC), using pictures of faces portraying blended emotions at different levels of ambiguity, which resemble real-life expressions more closely than prototypical expressions used in past studies. Seventy-seven participants (35 AN; 42 HC) completed the emotion recognition task.

Exploring emotion recognition in adults and adolescents with anorexia nervosa using a body motion paradigm.

Objective: There is consistent evidence of difficulties in social cognition in adults with anorexia nervosa (AN), but less is known about adolescents. The aim of this study was to investigate the ability to recognise emotion expressed in body movement in adults and adolescents with AN.

Method: One hundred and ninety-three females participated in the study (AN = 97: 61 adults and 36 adolescents).

Emotion and eating disorder symptoms in patients with anorexia nervosa: an experimental study.

Objective: To evaluate the effect of negative emotion on self-reported eating disorder symptoms and objectively-measured eating behavior in patients with anorexia nervosa (AN).

Method: Twenty-eight females with AN were randomized to a negative or neutral mood induction followed by a test meal. Participants completed assessments one week before the experimental session, before (pretest) and after (posttest) the mood induction, and after the test meal.

The clinical utility of personality subtypes in patients with anorexia nervosa.

Objective: Elucidation of clinically relevant subtypes has been proposed as a means of advancing treatment research, but classifying anorexia nervosa (AN) patients into restricting and binge-eating/purging types has demonstrated limited predictive validity. This study aimed to evaluate whether an approach to classifying eating disorder patients on the basis of comorbid personality psychopathology has utility in predicting treatment response and readmission in patients with AN.

Method: Data were collected from 154 AN patients (M [SD] age = 25.