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The interpretation of symptoms of starvation/severe dietary restraint in eating disorder patients

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Abstract

The aims of the study were to test the hypotheses that some symptoms of starvation/severe dietary restraint are interpreted by patients with eating disorders in terms of control. Sixty-nine women satisfying the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders - IV edition (DSM-IV) criteria for a clinical eating disorder and 107 controls participated in the study. All the participants completed an ambiguous scenarios paradigm, the Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire (EDE-Q) and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). Significantly more eating disorder patients than non clinical participants interpreted the starvation/dietary restraint symptoms of hunger, heightened satiety, and dizziness in terms of control. The data give further support to the recent cognitive-behavioural theory of eating disorders suggesting that eating disorder patients interpret some starvation/dietary restraint symptoms in terms of control.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Eating and Weight Disorder, Villa Garda Hospital, Via Montebaldo 89, 37016, Garda (VR), Italy

    Riccardo Dalle Grave M.D., D. Di Pauli, M. Sartirana & S. Calugi

  2. School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, Reading, UK

    R. Shafran

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  1. Riccardo Dalle Grave M.D.
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  2. D. Di Pauli
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  3. M. Sartirana
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  4. S. Calugi
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  5. R. Shafran
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Correspondence to Riccardo Dalle Grave M.D..

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Dalle Grave, R., Di Pauli, D., Sartirana, M. et al. The interpretation of symptoms of starvation/severe dietary restraint in eating disorder patients. Eat Weight Disord 12, 108–113 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03327637

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03327637

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