On the role of sadness in the psychopathology of anorexia nervosa

Recent models on the development and maintenance of eating disorders propose negative emotions to be important precursors for the occurrence of eating disorder symptomatology. In fact, previous research on bulimia nervosa (BN) and binge eating disorder provides evidence that negative emotions are an antecedent condition for binge eating. However, there is a lack of research examining the influence of negative emotions on restrictive eating and exercising in individuals with anorexia nervosa (AN). In an experimental study, women with AN (n=39) and BN (n=34) as well as a non-eating disordered control group (CG; n=34) watched a sadness-inducing film clip. Before and after the film clip participants rated their current desire to engage in dietary restriction (DTR) and desire to exercise (DTE). Main results reveal that DTR significantly increased after the film clip in women with AN only, while DTE decreased over time in all groups. Results are in line with the notion that negative emotions have a prominent influence on the core eating pathology in AN.