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Objectives: We examined the population reach, acceptability, and perceived potential of an initiative that developed a promotional tool for a healthy body image, the Québec Charter for a Healthy and Diverse Body Image. The Charter, developed through consensus building by a multisectoral, government-led task force, outlined actions to be undertaken by organizations or citizens to reduce media pressures favoring thinness., Methods: Six months after the Charter's launch, we surveyed 1003 Québec residents aged 18 years or older about their knowledge of the Charter, their willingness to adhere to it, and their perceptions of its potential., Results: After minimal prompting, more than 35% of respondents recognized the Charter. About 33.7% were very favorable toward personally adhering to the Charter and 32.7% perceived the Charter as having high potential to sensitize people to negative consequences of disordered eating. Women showed greater likelihood and people with lesser education showed lower likelihood of spontaneous recognition., Conclusions: An initiative involving the creation of a body image Charter reaches a substantial portion of adults and is viewed as acceptable and potentially influential.

Unlabelled: Individuals with eating disorders are said to be highly ambivalent towards change and thus have difficulty maintaining a commitment to, and motivation for, treatment. Self-Determination Theory postulates that autonomous motivation for therapy exists when individuals view their participation as freely chosen., Objective: The present study was designed to ascertain whether or not autonomous motivation was associated with treatment response in individuals with bulimia-spectrum eating disorders (BSED)., Method: One hundred and fifty-five women with DSM-IV-TR BSED participated in multimodal group therapy and completed measures to assess motivation, eating and comorbid symptoms., Results: Hierarchical multiple regression analyses demonstrated that higher levels of autonomous motivation at pretreatment predicted lower post-treatment scores on measures of eating preoccupations (shape, weight and eating concerns), binge eating, anxiety/depression, relationship to self and others and impulsivity., Discussion: These results indicate that autonomous motivation may be an important predictor of outcome following treatment for BSED., (Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and Eating Disorders Association.)

Objective: We investigated the predictive utility of three dimensions of body esteem in explaining self-esteem in samples of eating-disordered (ED) and nonclinical women., Method: Participants comprised 74 ED women and 103 female university students. All women completed questionnaires measuring body esteem and self-esteem and all provided information on height and weight. We ran hierarchical multiple regression analyses with self-esteem as the outcome variable and participant status (clinical or non), body mass index (BMI), body esteem, and interaction terms as predictors., Results: The main finding was a Body Esteem x Participant Status interaction involving the attribution dimension of body esteem. Specifically, among ED women, the higher their body esteem attribution (i.e., the more they endorsed items such as "I think my appearance would help me get dates"), the higher their self-esteem; whereas this relationship was not found among the students., Discussion: Our results contribute to an emerging profile of ED patients as highly socially sensitive., (Copyright 2002 by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

Objective We examined the psychometric properties of the Eating Disorder Readiness Ruler a simple self-report instrument designed to enable rapid assessment of readiness to change problematic eating behaviours in people with clinical eating disorders. Method We administered the ED-RR, the Eating Disorders Examination Questionnaire and a measure of autonomous and controlled motivation for change to 206 individuals receiving outpatient treatment for an eating disorder. Results A principal axis factoring analysis of the ED-RR yielded a significant two-factor solution (explaining 59% of variance)-one factor pertaining to restriction and body image preoccupation (four items), the other to binge-eating and vomiting symptoms (two items). The ED-RR showed good internal consistency (alpha coefficients for the two factors being .77 and .84 respectively). Furthermore, individuals reporting higher readiness showed higher scores on independent measures of autonomous motivation and greater symptom reductions over time. Discussion Results suggest that the ED-RR is a psychometrically sound tool with potential clinical utility. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and Eating Disorders Association. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To review the main phenomenological variants observed among bulimia spectrum syndromes and the factors believed to act etiologically for them and also to generate an etiologic model that accommodates known heterogeneities within the population suffering bulimic syndromes.Method: Defining bulimic syndromes broadly, we address threshold and subthreshold forms of bulimia nervosa (BN) and also the provisional or newly proposed diagnoses of binge eating disorder (BED) and purging disorder (PD). We review evidence bearing on the validity of these diagnostic entities and on the place of sociocultural, family-developmental, neurobiological, and genetic factors in a multidimensional etiologic model for these classifications.Results: Available data validate certain bulimic phenotypes and subphenotypes that are characterized by such traits as impulsivity or affective instability. Findings associate subphenotypic, or trait-based, variations with putative endophenotypes, such as reduced serotonin transporter activity, and with candidate genotypes affecting the serotonin system; the data also indicate intriguing correspondences between gene environment interactions and subphenotypic variations along such dimensions as novelty seeking.Conclusions: Bulimic syndromes sometimes reflect a primary disruption of controls over mood, impulses, and appetite in individuals showing marked psychopathology; at other times, they reflect a more circumscribed erosion of appetitive controls in relatively intact individuals, following prolonged dieting. We argue that dimensional perspectives involving careful attention to comorbid personality traits and symptoms are needed to accommodate existing heterogeneities within the population suffering from bulimia and to characterize the etiologic roles of familial-developmental, neurobiological, and genetic variables (and of interactions among these variables) in bulimic syndromes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective A primary objective of the current article is to investigate the relationship between impulsivity and compulsivity in patients with bulimia nervosa (BN). A second goal is to explore the relationship between impulsivity and compulsivity and related psychiatric problems. Method Two-hundred four females with BN completed several measures of impulsivity and compulsivity as well as measures of personality, substance use, eating pathology, and depression. Results Participants reported considerable variability on measures of impulsivity and compulsivity and these scores were positively correlated with each other. Impulsive-compulsive groups differed in personality, substance use, eating, and depression. Conclusion These findings suggest that impulsivity and compulsivity can coexist in BN patients and that both traits may provide useful information about comorbid problems in women with BN. © 2005 by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thirty-one eating-disordered (ED) women and 11 normal women completed tests of sex-role identity, dysfunctional cognitions, and body image. Anorexics, not bulimics, exhibited body-image distortion. All EDs (distorters and nondistorters) showed "hyperfeminine" identifications. Maladaptive cognitions were present in all EDs, but more marked in "overestimators." Body weight predicted BID better than other measures of eating pathology, which suggests important effects of weight per se in producing BID. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study compared psychological and family features of adolescents with varying degrees of eating and mood symptoms. Questionnaires (administered to 715 high school girls) assessed maladaptive eating, mood disturbances, body-image concerns, traits of perfectionism, impulsivity, self-criticism, and reported family incohesion. Canonical correlation analysis and comparisons among groups displaying different combinations of eating and mood symptoms suggested the following: that concurrent mood and eating symptoms were linked to an aberrant psychological profile, characterized by body concerns, multiple psychological issues, and family incohesion. Circumscribed eating disturbances were associated with body concerns, but an otherwise intact profile. Mood disturbances were associated with an again more-disturbed psychological and family profile, but in which body concerns were unremarkable. Shared psychological and family features appeared to represent a possible basis for concurrence of mood and eating symptoms evident in our nonclinical population, and were discussed in the light of a ‘two-component’ model of the eating disorders proposed by Garner, Olmsted, Polivy & Garfinkel (1984). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diagnostic criteria lot anorexia nervosa emphasize characteristic behavioral and psychological symptomatology, including weight ‘phobia,’ willful pursuit of thinness, body-image distortion, obsessionality, and perfectionism. We find numerous examples among patients exhibiting low body weight and other anorexic-like symptomatology who, despite the presence of a definite eating disorder, fail to meet formal criteria for anorexia nervosa. We report five cases of this type, reviewing common features as a basis for proposing a subtype of Atypical Eating Disorders that has specific symptomatology and psychological characteristics, that can presently not be defined as either an anorexic or bulimic disorder. We offer speculations as to a possibly distinct etiology of such atypical eating disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study tested a dual-process family model in understanding the relationships among dysfunctional family relationships, family preoccupation with weight and appearance, and body- and self-esteem problems in the development of eating and psychiatric symptoms. Structural equation analyses suggested that family environment contributed to the development of eating and psychiatric symptoms through two interrelated pathways. On one hand, family preoccupation with weight and appearance had direct effects on body dissatisfaction and eating symptoms. Body dissatisfaction had direct effects on self-esteem deficit and eating symptoms, and indirect effects mediated by self-esteem deficit on eating and psychiatric symptoms. On the other hand, general family dysfunction had direct effect on negative self-esteem, and indirect effects through negative self-esteem on eating and psychiatric symptoms. Findings are discussed in relation to the possible mechanisms by which dysfunctional family relationships and family preoccupation with weight may predispose girls to eating pathology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research suggests that creative art therapies can produce short-term improvements in self-concept, mood and perceived well-being in various patient populations. Evaluation of such improvements for eating disorder patients has received little attention to date. The present report describes an Art Therapy program, consisting of a visit to Montreal Museum of Fine Arts followed by an art-therapy workshop that was provided to several groups of adult patients from the Douglas Institute’s Eating Disorders Program. We evaluated the suitability the AT program for patients being treated for eating disorders (in terms of patient satisfaction and tolerability) in a sample of 78 patients. Results indicated that patients enjoyed the program, and found it interesting and enriching. They also reported that the program provided a means for self-expression and creativity. We also assessed the short-term impact of art therapy on self-reported mood using the Profile of Mood States (POMS-BI ( Lorr, McNair, & Fisher, 1982 )), eating disorder preoccupations and urges using a Visual Analog Scale, as well as body image concerns using the Body Satisfaction Scale ( Slade, Dewey, Newton, Brodie, & Kiemle, 1990 ). At the end of the program, patients were significantly more composed and slightly more tired. The findings from the current study provide data on the suitability of art therapy programs as adjuncts to standard treatments for adults with eating disorders and show no significant short-term impact, either positive or negative, on body image or eating preoccupations/urges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]