Attitudes to food, eating and weight in acutely ill and recovered anorectics.

A between-groups experimental design was used to test groups of acutely ill anorectics (n = 15), former anorectic patients who had been judged recovered at discharge (n = 14), psychiatric controls (n = 10) and normals (n = 24) on the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT). It was hypothesized that both acutely ill and recovered anorectics would show significantly greater distorted attitudes to food, eating and weight than controls, as assessed by the EAT. Results supported the hypothesis and suggest that anorectics may continue to show distorted attitudes to food, eating and weight after they have recovered from the gross physical and behavioural features of the disorder, although these attitudes appear to be somewhat less extreme than during the acute phase. It is concluded that an important aspect of anorexia nervosa appears to be largely unaltered by present treatment.