Illness perception in patients with eating disorders

PURPOSE: Although the role of illness perception in the clinical course of many physical diseases and certain mental disorders has been well described, little is known about illness perception in eating disorders (ED) so far. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to extend our understanding of il...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Agüera, Zaida|||0000-0003-4453-4939, Riesco, Nadine|||0000-0002-6336-4907, Valenciano-Mendoza, Eduardo|||0000-0002-1690-5109, Granero, Roser|||0000-0001-6308-3198, Sánchez Díaz, Isabel María|||0000-0001-5874-8204, Andreu, Alba|||0000-0001-9854-1531, Jiménez Murcia, Susana|||0000-0002-3596-8033, Fernández Aranda, Fernando|||0000-0002-2968-9898
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2021
País:España
Institución:Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Repositorio:Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:ddd.uab.cat:301980
Acceso en línea:https://ddd.uab.cat/record/301980
https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.1007/s40519-020-01083-3
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Food addiction
Eating disorders
Insight
Personality
Illness perception
Anorexia Nervosa
Bulimia Nervosa
Humans
Food Addiction
Perception
Binge-Eating Disorder
Feeding and Eating Disorders
SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being
Descripción
Sumario:PURPOSE: Although the role of illness perception in the clinical course of many physical diseases and certain mental disorders has been well described, little is known about illness perception in eating disorders (ED) so far. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to extend our understanding of illness perception in different ED diagnostic types and to explore its association between clinical, psychopathological, motivational, personality, and food addiction (FA) features. METHODS: The sample consisted of 104 patients with ED [(23 anorexia nervosa (AN), 39 bulimia nervosa (BN), 19 binge eating disorder (BED), and 23 other specified feeding and eating disorders (OSFED)]. Illness perception was assessed by means of the revised version of the Illness Perception Questionnaire (IPQ-R). RESULTS: The results supported the association between illness perception and clinical, psychopathological, and personality factors. Patients with BN and BED showed greater illness perception than the other types. Improved illness perception was positively associated with a longer duration of the disorder and FA. Furthermore, a relevant finding suggests that at least half of the patients with ED did not achieve a good level of illness perception until after having the disorder for 20 years on average. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that higher levels of FA and longer duration of the ED are positively and directly associated with increased illness perception. This may explain the low levels of initial motivation in these patients and their high dropout rates in the early stages of treatment. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE III: Case-control analytic study.