Eating Disorders: Imagining One’s Own and Someone Else’s Body Actions: Dissociation in Anorexia Nervosa.

Imagining One’s Own and Someone Else’s Body Actions: Dissociation in Anorexia Nervosa.

Filed under: Eating Disorders

PLoS One. 2012; 7(8): e43241
Guardia D, Conversy L, Jardri R, Lafargue G, Thomas P, Dodin V, Cottencin O, Luyat M

Patients with anorexia nervosa (AN) usually report feeling larger than they really are. This body overestimation appears to be related not only to the patient’s body image but also to an abnormal representation of the body in action. In previous work on a body-scaled anticipation task, anorexic patients judged that they could not pass through a door-like aperture even when it was easily wide enough – suggesting the involvement of the body schema. In the present study, we sought to establish whether this erroneous judgment about action is specifically observed when it concerns one’s own body or whether it is symptomatic of a general impairment in perceptual discrimination.Twenty-five anorexic participants and 25 control participants were presented with a door-like aperture. They had to judge whether or not the aperture was wide enough for them to pass through (i.e. first-person perspective, 1PP) and for another person present in the testing room to pass through (i.e. third-person perspective, 3PP).We observed a higher passability ratio (i.e. the critical aperture size to shoulder width ratio) in AN patients for 1PP but not for 3PP. Moreover, the magnitude of the passability ratio was positively correlated not only with the extent of the patient’s body and eating concerns but also with the body weight prior to disease onset. Our results suggest that body overestimation can affect judgments about the capacity for action but only when they concern the patient’s own body. This could be related to impairments of the overall network involved in the emergence of the body schema and in one’s own perspective judgments.Overestimation of the body schema might occur because the central nervous system has not updated the new, emaciated body, with maintenance of an incorrect representation based on the patient’s pre-AN body dimensions.
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Clinical confidence following an interprofessional educational program on eating disorders for health care professionals: a qualitative analysis.

Filed under: Eating Disorders

J Multidiscip Healthc. 2012; 5: 201-5
Pettersen G, Rosenvinge JH, Thune-Larsen KB, Wynn R

There are an increasing number of educational programs to improve clinical competence and skills to treat mental disorders. For complex disorders there is also a focus on improving the quality of interprofessional work. This paper reports on interprofessional outputs of an educational program on eating disorders. A total of 207 professionals who completed the program were requested to describe up to 12 possible scenarios depicted as realistic prospects for their future work within this field. Analyzing the scenarios resulted in three categories of describing the participants’ preferences: (1) interprofessional interventions and treatment; (2) the further development of competence; and (3) organization of the health care system. The findings showed that the participants were considering working across new lines in their current workplaces or crossing borders to new frontiers in the execution of competence. Our findings may be summarized into the concept of “clinical confidence.” This concept has so far been understood as some kind of personal trait, disposition, or attitude. The present findings add nuances to this concept in terms of state-dependent encouragement, engagement, and a potential to act and to cross professional borders in order to better treat complex mental disorders.
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An Examination of Adults on Antipsychotic Medication at Risk for Metabolic Syndrome: A Comparison with Obese and Eating Disorder Populations.

Filed under: Eating Disorders

Eur Eat Disord Rev. 2012 Aug 31;
Stiles-Shields C, Bogue C, Grange DL, Yohanna D

Little research has explored how eating disorders (ED) may be involved in the increased risk for metabolic syndrome in adults on antipsychotic medication. This pilot study compared participants on antipsychotic medication with obese and ED samples with respect to demographic and psychosocial factors. Participants (antipsychotic medication n?=?12; obese n?=?12; ED n?=?12), were adults presenting to an outpatient psychiatry department (83.3% women; M age?=?45.75?±?11.5). Analysis of variance, analysis of covariance and chi-square tests were used to compare the samples. Participants on antipsychotic medications had a significantly lower mean body mass index than the obese (p?HubMed – eating

Responsiveness of ‘Conference’ pears to 1-methylcyclopropene: the role of harvest date, orchard location and year.

Filed under: Eating Disorders

J Sci Food Agric. 2012 Aug 30;
Chiriboga MA, Schotsmans WC, Larrigaudière C, Dupille E, Recasens I

BACKGROUND: In some pear varieties like ‘Conference’, 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) treatment often impairs the ripening process indefinitely and the pears remain ‘evergreen’. To better understand this behaviour, the influence of the harvest date, orchard location and year on the effectiveness of 1-MCP treatment was investigated. RESULTS: Pear softening was inhibited by 1-MCP treatment and the effectiveness of the treatment depended on harvest date, orchard location and year. Differences in the rate of softening in 1-MCP-treated pears depended mainly on the fruit physiological maturity at the moment of 1-MCP treatment. Accordingly, the combination of the Streif index and ethylene production at harvest appeared to be able to predict the evergreen behaviour. Treated pears with a low Streif index (<0.8) and high ethylene production at harvest (?0.23 µL kg(-1) h(-1) ) maintain significantly high firmness but did soften during shelf life, reaching acceptable eating quality. CONCLUSION: Evergreen behaviour was mainly influenced by the initial fruit maturity and especially by the ability of the fruit to produce ethylene at the moment of treatment. More mature fruit were able to overcome the inhibition by 1-MCP, and the solution to prevent evergreen behaviour therefore lies in the adequate determination of harvest maturity. Copyright © 2012 Society of Chemical Industry. HubMed – eating

Developing a nutrition intervention in children’s centres: exploring views of parents in rural/urban settings in the UK.

Filed under: Eating Disorders

Public Health Nutr. 2012 Aug 31; 1-6
Ohly HR, Hayter A, Pettinger C, Pikhart H, Watt RG, Rees GA

OBJECTIVE: The present study explored parents’ requirements for healthy eating support prior to the development of a tailored intervention. DESIGN: A cross-sectional study of parents attending children’s centres. SETTING: Children’s centres in Cornwall (rural south-west England) and Islington (urban London borough). SUBJECTS: A total of 261 parents (94·2 % female) of pre-school children (aged 2-5 years) completed a questionnaire on factors influencing food choice, and preferences for and views on healthy eating support. RESULTS: Parents reported that health, taste, freshness and quality were the most important factors influencing their food choices for their pre-school children. The importance of individual factors varied according to level of educational attainment. Over a third (38 %) of parents said they wanted more advice on healthy eating for children. Less educated parents showed the greatest interest in learning more about several aspects: what a ‘healthy diet’ means, how to prepare and cook healthy food, how to understand food labels, budgeting for food, examples of healthy food and snacks for children, appropriate portion sizes for children and ways to encourage children to eat well. CONCLUSIONS: There was demand for healthy eating support among parents of pre-school children, especially those who are less educated, in one rural and one urban area of England.
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