School of Psychology, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.
J Psychosom Res. 2011 Feb;70(2):189-96. doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychores.2010.07.012. Epub 2010 Nov 19.
The Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) measures affective decision making and has revealed decision making impairments across a wide range of eating disorders. This study aimed to investigate affective decision making in severely obese individuals.
Forty-two (12 male, 30 female) morbidly obese participants (mean BMI = 41.45) and 50 comparison participants (17 male, 33 female) matched for age, gender and education, completed the IGT.
Obese participants performed significantly worse on the IGT compared to the comparison group, with 69% of the obese group demonstrating clinically impaired decision making. There was no evidence of learning across the five trial blocks in obese participants, with significant differences between the groups emerging in blocks 3, 4, and 5. IGT impairment was unrelated to BMI or eating pathology.
Obese participants were significantly impaired on the IGT. The pattern of performance suggested a potential inability to maximise an immediate reward or program a delayed reward. The findings support the view that common decision making impairments exist across disordered eating populations. Future research is required to specify the source and mechanisms of these decision making deficits. The logical progression of this research is the development of interventions which improve decision making capacity and measure subsequent impact on psychological and physical outcomes.
赌博任务（IGT）衡量情感决策，已揭示出各种饮食失调症的决策障碍。本研究旨在研究严重肥胖个体的情感决策。
42 名（男性 12 名，女性 30 名）病态肥胖参与者（平均 BMI=41.45）和 50 名匹配年龄、性别和教育的对照组参与者完成了 IGT。
肥胖参与者在 IGT 上的表现明显差于对照组，69%的肥胖组表现出临床决策障碍。肥胖组在五个试验块中没有表现出学习的迹象，在第 3、4 和 5 块中出现了显著的组间差异。IGT 损伤与 BMI 或饮食病理学无关。
肥胖参与者在 IGT 上明显受损。表现模式表明，他们可能无法最大限度地提高即时奖励或规划延迟奖励。这些发现支持了这样一种观点，即存在常见的决策障碍，存在于各种饮食失调人群中。需要进一步的研究来确定这些决策缺陷的来源和机制。这项研究的逻辑进展是开发可以改善决策能力的干预措施，并衡量其对心理和身体结果的后续影响。
