CONICET-Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Service of Cognitive Neurology, Neuropsychology and Neuropsychiatry, Fleni, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Eur Eat Disord Rev. 2019 Nov;27(6):692-699. doi: 10.1002/erv.2701. Epub 2019 Sep 8.
Previous studies have shown theory of mind (ToM) is affected in patients with anorexia nervosa (AN). There has also been growing interest in the study of endophenotypes in psychiatric disorders, since they allow better understanding of genetic mechanisms underlying different conditions, making them potential targets for future treatment. The goal of this study was to investigate whether ToM inefficiencies observed in patients with AN, are shared by unaffected first-degree relatives.
Performance on two ToM tasks (Reading the Mind in the Eyes and Faux Pas Test) were compared in 17 unaffected first-degree relatives of AN patients and in 17 healthy individuals matched for age and level of education. Depression, anxiety, obsessive compulsive, and eating disorder symptoms were also assessed and correlated with ToM and clinical/demographic variables.
Significant differences between groups were observed in all ToM tasks, with relatives of AN patients showing poorer performance. ToM assessment did not correlate with any clinical or demographic variable.
The preliminary results of this study suggest unaffected first-degree relatives of AN patients display similar patterns of difficulty in ToM as reported previously for AN patients, supporting the hypothesis that ToM inefficiencies are a familial trait in this condition.
先前的研究表明，厌食症（AN）患者的心理理论（ToM）受到影响。人们对精神疾病的内表型研究也越来越感兴趣，因为它们可以更好地理解不同疾病的遗传机制，使它们成为未来治疗的潜在靶点。本研究旨在探讨 AN 患者存在的 ToM 效率低下是否与未受影响的一级亲属共有。
比较了 17 名未受影响的 AN 患者一级亲属和 17 名年龄和教育程度相匹配的健康个体在两项 ToM 任务（眼神阅读和 faux pas 测试）上的表现。还评估了抑郁、焦虑、强迫和饮食障碍症状，并与 ToM 以及临床/人口统计学变量相关。
在所有 ToM 任务中，患者组和亲属组之间均存在显著差异，亲属组的表现较差。ToM 评估与任何临床或人口统计学变量均无相关性。
本研究的初步结果表明，AN 患者的未受影响的一级亲属在 ToM 方面表现出与先前报道的 AN 患者相似的困难模式，支持 ToM 效率低下是该疾病的家族特征这一假设。
