Eating Disorders Overview

A disorder where individuals starve themselves, despite being significantly underweight, convinced they need to lose more weight.

Anorexia Nervosa subtype where individuals simply refuse to eat or exercise excessively to prevent weight gain.

Anorexia Nervosa subtype where individuals engage in binge eating followed by purging behaviors like self-induced vomiting or using laxatives.

A disorder characterized by recurrent episodes of binge eating followed by inappropriate compensatory behaviors like vomiting, excessive exercise, or fasting.

The belief that weight is regulated around a set point, with obese individuals having a higher set point than non-obese individuals.

A disorder involving recurrent episodes of binge eating, often accompanied by feelings of guilt and shame.

A diagnosis given to individuals who exhibit eating disorder behaviors but do not meet the full diagnostic criteria for a specific eating disorder.

A behavioral technique that reduces the reward value of a stimulus by repeatedly exposing the individual to the stimulus without the associated reward.

The process by which anorexic individuals learn to reduce their desire for food through repeated exposure to food cues without eating.

The theory that anorexia involves creating new associations with food that reduce its positive incentive value.

The tendency for anorexic patients to experience a relapse in eating behavior when they return to their home environment.

The tendency to overeat can be triggered by increased reactivity to food cues, which are stimuli that signal the presence of food, such as its sight, smell, or taste.

The idea that frequent attempts at dieting increase the likelihood of binge eating.

People with binge eating disorder and obesity show a heightened response to food cues compared to individuals without eating or weight concerns.

Studies that examine the relationship between dieting and binge eating by looking back at past experiences.

Food cue reactivity can stem from genetic factors and/or learned associations between cues and highly rewarding foods.

Laboratory experiments that study the effects of dieting and food restriction on binge eating behavior.

Dietary restraint is a conscious effort to limit food intake, but it can be ineffective, leading to an increase in desire for food and potential overeating.

The inability of restrained eaters to control their food intake after a period of dietary restriction is broken.

The association between dietary restraint and binge eating is complex and likely results from overeating triggering dieting rather than dieting triggering overeating.

The claim that dieting causes binge eating or eating disorders is flawed because research hasn't directly manipulated restraint levels.

The act of dieting can increase food cue reactivity, leading to an amplified response to food-related cues.

The possibility that restrained and unrestrained eaters differ in many ways, leading to varying responses to food triggers.

Food cue reactivity is a combination of psychological and physiological responses to food cues, such as cravings, salivation, and reward activation.

Genetic predisposition and past experiences with food can influence an individual's sensitivity to food cues.

Clinical interventions focused on weight loss that involve dietary restraint and calorie restriction can lead to decreased overeating, binge eating, and eating disorder symptoms.

Interventions that increase dietary restraint and calorie restriction show promising results in reducing weight, decreasing overeating, and improving eating disorder symptoms in individuals motivated to lose weight.

The tendency for individuals with eating disorders to move between different diagnoses (e.g., Anorexia Nervosa to Bulimia Nervosa) over time.

The overall category of 'eating disorder' remains relatively consistent; however, there is significant shifting between specific eating disorder diagnoses (e.g., Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa, EDNOS).

Individuals with eating disorders primarily focused on restriction (e.g., Anorexia Nervosa) are more likely to recover compared to individuals with binge-purge behaviors.

The frequent movement between eating disorder diagnoses and similarities in their core features suggest these may be different manifestations of a single underlying issue rather than completely distinct disorders.

The DSM-IV criteria for eating disorders are overly rigid, leading to potential misclassifications based on minor changes in eating patterns or weight.

Using controlled experiments with healthy individuals to investigate how manipulating specific factors might contribute to or maintain eating disorders. This approach is preferable because it allows for direct observation of cause-and-effect relationships.

Since it's unethical to induce full-blown eating disorders, researchers use milder manipulations to mimic real-life causes. The goal is to look for causal links between specific factors and the emergence of (smaller) symptoms.

The process of examining whether reducing or eliminating a factor in individuals with subclinical symptoms (those who show mild signs of the disorder) can alleviate those symptoms. If the factor is truly causal, removing it should lead to symptom reduction.

The process of intentionally reducing or eliminating a specific factor to observe its impact on a particular outcome. This is a crucial method for identifying causal relationships. For example, training individuals to inhibit impulsive responses can reduce their cravings for certain foods.

In anorexia, research shows that there are abnormalities in the brain's reward system. However, these findings could be due to starvation rather than being the root cause of the disorder.

The idea that intentional starvation, as seen in anorexia, can lead to changes in the brain's reward system. This suggests that the abnormalities may be a consequence of prolonged food restriction.

The influence of mindset (thoughts, beliefs, and attitudes) on our brain's reward system and how we react to food. Our thoughts can actually change how our body physiologically responds to food.

When healthy individuals focus on the taste of food pictures, their brain areas associated with reward show increased activity. This suggests that our conscious attention can modulate brain responses.

Manipulating people's mindset by training them to either increase, decrease, or reinterpret their thoughts about food's taste can influence the activity in brain reward and control centers. This, in turn, affects their self-reported desire to eat.