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Updated: Jul 13, 2026

Assessing Activity-based Anorexia in Mice
Published on: May 14, 2018
The relationship between selflessness levels and the severity of anorexia nervosa symptomatology
Rachel Bachner-Melman1, Ada H Zohar, Richard P Ebstein
1Psychology Department, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. msrbach@plutomail.huji.ac.il
Abstract:
This study examined the relationship of selflessness, the tendency to ignore one's own needs and interests and serve others, to the severity of anorexia nervosa (AN) symptomatology. Measures of selflessness, perfectionism, obsessiveness, self-esteem, disordered eating, body dissatisfaction, drive for thinness and general symptomatology were completed by 205 women with a history of AN (ANh) in various stages of illness and recovery (42 ill, 90 partially recovered and 78 recovered) and 238 female controls. The ANh women's scores on the Selflessness Scale declined significantly as the severity of current pathology decreased. Recovered anorexics scored similarly to female controls. Assertion of one's own needs and interests may be an integral component of recovery from AN, and should be emphasized in therapy.
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