Expressed emotion and long-term outcome among adolescents with anorexia nervosa.

Abstract

OBJECTIVE\nThe purpose of the current study is to examine expressed emotion (EE) and long-term treatment outcome among adolescents participating in a randomized controlled trial (RCT) for treatment of anorexia nervosa (AN). It was hypothesized that patients with high EE parents at baseline would show more severe symptoms at end-of-treatment, 12-month follow-up, and 4-year follow-up than patients from low EE families.\n\n\nMETHOD\nSecondary data analysis was conducted of original RCT data from a two-site eating disorder treatment trial conducted in the United States. Participants were 121 adolescents with AN who completed measures of EE, eating disorder psychopathology, depression, and self-esteem.\n\n\nRESULTS\nGeneralized estimating equations showed that participants who were in the Low EE group achieved a more accelerated drop in depression scores in the context of treatment (first 12\u2009months) than participants in the High EE group. No other significant Group\u2009×\u2009Time interactions were found.\n\n\nDISCUSSION\nFindings suggest that high parental EE at baseline does not indicate that adolescent patients with AN will fare poorly 4\u2009years later.