P. Bolaños Ríos

Experimental induction of thought-shape fusion in eating disorder patients: the role of coping strategies

OBJECTIVE The aim was to induce the thought-shape fusion (TSF) distortion experimentally, testing: a) Whether the TSF distortion could be induced by anxiety in general or if it had a specific relationship with thoughts related to the intake of fattening foods; b) Whether the TSF could be induced in non-clinical participants as well as in the eating disorder patients; c) Whether participants with more appropriate coping strategies would experience less TSF than those who showed inadequate coping strategies; and d) That TSF could have behavioural effects (e.g., neutralization of TSF and food intake) related to emotions. METHODS The sample comprised two groups (eating disorder patients and students), with 45 participants each, aged between 18 and 25 years, 92.50% and 86.7% of women in the eating disorders group and the students group respectively. The two groups underwent three experimental conditions (TSF, anxiety, and control), measuring the results with regards to the emotional and behavioural responses. RESULTS Participants in the TSF induction condition reported more guilt, more feelings of fatness, more likelihood of weight gain, and higher degree of moral wrong-doing compared with participants in both the anxiety and control induction conditions. The effect of the adequate coping strategies in decreasing the strength of the TSF bias was confirmed in both eating disorder patients and non-clinical participants. DISCUSSION The study of the TSF distortion may have relevant implications in terms of treatment and prognostic of eating disorders. This distortion may be involved in the development and maintenance of eating disorder psychopathology.

Impact of functional dyspepsia on quality of life in eating disorder patients: the role of thought-shape fusion.

OBJECTIVE The study begins by analysing the psychometric properties of the Nepean Dyspepsia Index-Short Form (NDI-SF), before moving on to study quality of life in patients with functional dyspepsia (FD) and the psychopathological features that underlie the disorder in three groups of subjects: patients with eating disorders (ED), psychiatric patients (non-ED), and a group of students, all of whom fulfilled Rome III criteria for FD. The analysis specifically focused on the relationship between thought-shape fusion (TSF) and functional dyspepsia, and hence on the potential repercussions this could have on the quality of life of patients with eating disorders. METHODS The sample comprised 78 ED outpatients, 77 non-ED outpatients, and 90 university students, all of them with associated FD (Rome III criteria). The mental disorders (ED and non-ED) fulfilled the diagnostic criteria of DSM IV-RT. In all cases, the symptoms of dyspepsia, the related quality of life, anxiety, depression, and TSF were determined. RESULTS Satiation and bloating were significantly higher in ED patients. Correlations between dyspepsia and TSF were initially positive and significant in all cases, but significance was only maintained in the group of ED patients after controlling for the other psychopathological variables. Regarding the ED group, the regression analysis revealed the following predictors of quality of life: dyspepsia, depressive symptomatology, TSF-conceptual, TSF-interpretative and total TSF. DISCUSSION The cognitive distortion of TSF appears to constitute a general bias common to all eating disorders, with specific effect on the characteristic symptoms of FD.