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Psychological well‐being in out‐patients with eating disorders: A controlled study
Author(s) -
Tomba Elena,
Offidani Emanuela,
Tecuta Lucia,
Schumann Romana,
Ballardini Donatella
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
international journal of eating disorders
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.785
H-Index - 138
eISSN - 1098-108X
pISSN - 0276-3478
DOI - 10.1002/eat.22197
Subject(s) - eating disorders , bulimia nervosa , psychology , confounding , clinical psychology , anorexia nervosa , population , distress , binge eating disorder , psychiatry , medicine , environmental health
Objective Positive functioning is widely neglected in research on eating disorders (EDs). The aim of this exploratory study was to assess psychological well‐being (PWB) in out‐patients with ED and in controls. Method The authors assessed PWB in 245 out‐patients with EDs [105 with bulimia nervosa (BN), 57 with anorexia nervosa (AN), and 83 with binge eating disorder (BED) who met DSM‐IV‐TR] and 60 controls. They tested whether PWB was associated with eating attitude test (EAT) scores and if such associations differed among ED groups while taking into account confounding variables. Results Significant differences between groups in all PWB scales were found. While individuals with BN reported significantly lower scores in all PWB dimensions than healthy controls, patients with BED scored significantly lower than controls in PWB autonomy, environmental mastery, and self‐acceptance scales. Patients with AN showed similar scores to controls in all PWB dimensions, except for positive relationships and self‐acceptance. In all ED groups, most PWB dimensions resulted significantly and negatively associated with EAT scales, except for AN where oral control was found to positively correlate with a high sense of purpose in life. All results were maintained even after adjusting for possible confounding variables. Discussion Patients with EDs reported an impairment in PWB. The paucity of PWB was not necessarily dependent on the presence of high levels of psychological distress and on the severity of the disorder. Such assessments may therefore yield a more comprehensive evaluation in this clinical population. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (Int J Eat Disord 2014; 47:252–258)