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Do emotional responses to food images differ within different types of eating disorders?
Nasim Foroughi1, Sloane Madden2, Simon Clarke3
1School of Medicine, Western Sydney University, Australia.
Objectives:
To investigate emotional responses to food images in women with eating disorders (EDs) and healthy controls (HCs); and in underweight individuals post weight-restoration.
Methods:
Women (>14 years) with (n = 139) and without (n = 41) an ED rated food images evoking fear, disgust and happiness on a three-visual-analogue scale. Underweight participants viewed the images at two time-points; pre- and post-weight-restoration.
Results:
HCs were significantly happier, less fearful/anxious prior to viewing the images compared with EDs. Negative emotional responses when viewing images were significantly greater (p < .001) in EDs compared with HCs; however, groups did not differ in happiness. Emotional responses were not significantly different within the ED groups. At post weight-restoration, individuals were significantly less anxious/disgusted when viewing the images.
Conclusions:
The importance of considering emotional responses when discussing food consumption in EDs trans-diagnostically is highlighted. Weight recovery reduces negative food responses, although responses remained high in comparison to HCs.
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