Emotional processing in recovered anorexia nervosa patients: A 15 year longitudinal study. (1st September 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Castro, Telma Fontão; Miller, Kylee; Araújo, Maria Xavier; Brandão, Isabel; Torres, Sandra
• Is Part Of: European eating disorders review. Volume 29:Number 6(2021)
• Page Start: 955
• Page End: 968
• Publication Date: 2021-09-01
• Subjects: anorexia nervosa -- anxiety -- depression -- emotional processing -- recovery; Eating disorders -- Periodicals; 616.8526
• DOI: 10.1002/erv.2858
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1072-4133

Abstract

Abstract: Objective: This 15 years longitudinal study aimed to examine whether difficulties in cognitive processing of emotions persisted after long‐term recovery from anorexia nervosa (AN), and its link to anxiety and depression. Method: Twenty‐four females, who were tested longitudinally during their acute and recovered AN phases, and 24 healthy control (HC) women, were screened for anxiety, depression, alexithymia, emotion regulation difficulties (ER; only assessed in recovery phase), and completed an experimental task to analyse emotional experience. Results: In spite of significant improvement in alexithymia, anxiety, and depression with AN recovery, some emotion functioning difficulties did not normalize. The occurrence of comorbid anxiety and depression explained the reduced ability to identify, understand, and accept emotions in long‐term recovery (relative to controls), but not the increased global difficulty in using ER strategies, which revealed a more stable nature of deficit. With recovery, negative emotions linked to situations addressing food and body weight are felt more intensely. Conclusions: Managing emotions, especially the negative ones, remains a challenge for individuals recovered from AN. Under this circumstance, maladaptive eating behaviour can serve as an affect regulatory function, increasing the risk of relapse. Emotional education is an important avenue in protecting long‐term AN relapse. Highlights: Impaired emotional functioning tends to normalize with long‐term AN recovery. Nevertheless, greater difficulties in emotion regulation (ER) seem to persist Anxiety and depression only explained difficulties in emotional clarity and acceptance ER difficulties can be a risk factor for long‐term AN relapse