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Schlagworte
- Anorexia nervosa (2) (entfernen)
Institut
- Fachbereich 1 (1)
- Psychologie (1)
Changes in the cardiovascular system are an often described state in eating disorders. Women with anorexia and bulimia nervosa and control persons were studied before and after a treatment in a psychosomatic clinic. Using different methods cardiovascular reactivity was evaluated in rest and during mental stress and exercise. Improvements after treatment were defined by weight gain, an increase of the trijodthyroninlevel and no more purging in the last three weeks. The anorectics showed higher epinephrinlevels than the other women. The cardiovascular parameters demonstrated an increase of parasympathic activity and a decrease of sympathetic activity in eating disorders. However, the reactivities on stressors showed no differences in comparison to the control group. No changes were observed during the treatment apart from the heartrate, which showed a tendency to increase in the last week of therapy. Because the improvements during the therapy were generally small, within the present study it could not be clarified wether the observed alterations are reversible. An increase of the parasympathic activity in autonome regulation of the heart in eating disorders has been demonstrated and the reactivity on stressors appears to be normal.
When do anorexic patients perceive their body as too fat? Aggravating and ameliorating factors
(2019)
Objective
Our study investigated body image representations in female patients with anorexia nervosa
and healthy controls using a size estimation with pictures of their own body. We also
explored a method to reduce body image distortions through right hemispheric activation.
Method
Pictures of participants’ own bodies were shown on the left or right visual fields for 130 ms
after presentation of neutral, positive, or negative word primes, which could be self-relevant
or not, with the task of classifying the picture as “thinner than”, “equal to”, or “fatter than”
one’s own body. Subsequently, activation of the left- or right hemispheric through right- or
left-hand muscle contractions for 3 min., respectively. Finally, participants completed the
size estimation task again.
Results
The distorted “fatter than” body image was found only in patients and only when a picture of
their own body appeared on the right visual field (left hemisphere) and was preceded by
negative self-relevant words. This distorted perception of the patients’ body image was
reduced after left-hand muscle contractions (right hemispheric activation).
Discussion
To reduce body image distortions it is advisable to find methods that help anorexia nervosa
patients to increase their self-esteem. The body image distortions were ameliorated after
right hemispheric activation. A related method to prevent distorted body-image representations
in these patients may be Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
therapy.