Center for Weight, Eating, and Lifestyle Sciences, Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
Eur Eat Disord Rev. 2023 Nov;31(6):793-801. doi: 10.1002/erv.3009. Epub 2023 Jul 3.
Emotion dysregulation (i.e., a multi-component term comprising nonacceptance of emotional responses, difficulty engaging in goal-directed behaviour, impulse control difficulties, lack of emotional awareness, limited access to emotion regulation strategies, and lack of emotional clarity) is a well-established transdiagnostic risk and maintenance factor for eating disorders. To date, there is limited information on how varying scores on subdomains of emotion dysregulation may yield distinct profiles in individuals with binge-spectrum eating disorders (B-EDs), and how these emotion dysregulation profiles may inform resultant symptomatology.
In the current study, treatment-seeking individuals with B-EDs (n = 315) completed the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) and Eating Disorder Examination. Latent profile analysis was conducted on the six subscales of the DERS. Identified latent profiles were examined as predictors of eating disorder pathology using linear regression, and a two-class model of emotion dysregulation fit the data.
Class 1 (n = 113) was low in all of the DERS subscales, while Class 2 (n = 202) was high in all of the DERS subscales. Individuals in Class 2 had a significantly higher frequency of compensatory behaviours in the past month (F(1,313) = 12.97, p < 0.001), and significantly higher restraint scores (F(1,313) = 17.86, p < 0.001). The classes also significantly differed in terms of eating concern (F(1,313) = 20.89, p < 0.001) and shape concern (F(1,313) = 4.59, p = 0.03), with both being higher for Class 2.
We found only two distinct classes of emotion dysregulation in B-ED's such that individuals were simply high or low in emotion dysregulation. These results suggest that it may be more valuable for future research to evaluate emotion dysregulation as a cohesive whole rather than conceptualising the construct as having truly distinct subdomains.
情绪调节障碍（即包含对情绪反应的不接受、难以进行目标导向行为、冲动控制困难、缺乏情绪意识、有限的情绪调节策略、缺乏情绪清晰性等多个组成部分的术语）是进食障碍的一个公认的跨诊断风险和维持因素。迄今为止，关于情绪调节障碍的不同亚领域的分数如何在暴食症患者中产生不同的特征，以及这些情绪调节特征如何影响结果症状，信息有限。
在本研究中，接受治疗的暴食症患者（n=315）完成了《情绪调节困难量表》（DERS）和《进食障碍检查》。对 DERS 的六个分量表进行潜在剖面分析。使用线性回归分析识别出的潜在特征作为进食障碍病理的预测因子，并对情绪调节障碍的两分类模型进行拟合。
第 1 类（n=113）在 DERS 的所有分量表中得分均较低，而第 2 类（n=202）在 DERS 的所有分量表中得分均较高。第 2 类患者在过去一个月中补偿行为的频率明显更高（F（1，313）=12.97，p<0.001），且约束得分明显更高（F（1，313）=17.86，p<0.001）。这两类患者在进食关注（F（1，313）=20.89，p<0.001）和体型关注（F（1，313）=4.59，p=0.03）方面也存在显著差异，第 2 类得分均更高。
我们仅在暴食症患者中发现了两种不同的情绪调节障碍特征，即患者要么是情绪调节障碍较高，要么是较低。这些结果表明，未来的研究可能更有价值的是评估情绪调节障碍作为一个整体，而不是将该结构概念化为具有真正不同的亚领域。
