Laboratory of Biological Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, KU Leuven, Belgium; Leuven Brain Institute, KU Leuven, Belgium.
Leuven Brain Institute, KU Leuven, Belgium; Research Unit Behaviour, Health and Psychopathology, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, KU Leuven, Belgium.
Behav Res Ther. 2021 Jul;142:103868. doi: 10.1016/j.brat.2021.103868. Epub 2021 May 4.
Fear of weight gain is a cardinal feature of eating disorders, including Anorexia Nervosa (AN). This fear motivates behaviors aimed at avoiding weight gain, such as restricting food intake. Of note, avoidance in AN is not confined to food-related items but extends to intense emotional states. Despite the presence of several forms of excessive avoidance in AN, little is known about the mechanisms underpinning avoidance behavior in AN. In the present exploratory study, we investigated whether university students with an elevated desire to avoid weight gain (as measured through self-reported Drive for Thinness, DT) show deficits in generic avoidance learning. Two-hundred and seventy-five female students filled in the Eating Disorder Inventory-II (EDI-II) and performed a food-unrelated avoidance task. Generalized and linear mixed models (GLMM) revealed that students scoring higher on the DT scale of the EDI-II showed more ineffective avoidance, suggesting a tendency for excessive avoidance in at-risk individuals for AN. Similar results might extend to other eating disorders.
对体重增加的恐惧是饮食失调的一个主要特征，包括神经性厌食症 (AN)。这种恐惧促使人们采取避免体重增加的行为，例如限制食物摄入。值得注意的是，AN 中的回避不仅局限于与食物相关的项目，还扩展到强烈的情绪状态。尽管 AN 中存在几种形式的过度回避，但对支持 AN 回避行为的机制知之甚少。在本探索性研究中，我们调查了具有较高回避体重增加欲望的大学生（通过自我报告的瘦身欲望 DT 衡量）是否在一般回避学习方面存在缺陷。275 名女学生填写了饮食障碍问卷-II（EDI-II）并进行了与食物无关的回避任务。广义线性混合模型（GLMM）显示，在 EDI-II 的 DT 量表上得分较高的学生表现出更无效的回避，这表明 AN 高危个体有过度回避的倾向。类似的结果可能适用于其他饮食失调。
