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This review identified and synthesized published training programs on eating disorders (ED) (anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa) for professionals, natural supporters of people with ED, or the public. A scoping review using the Arksey and O'Malley (2005) framework was conducted. Four data bases were searched, for all years, and manual searches from three additional sources were also conducted. Experts on ED were consulted for validation of the identified studies. A narrative synthesis was performed. A total of 20 evaluation studies from five countries were identified, and reviewed in relation to 14 ED training programs. Characteristics of the training programs, and study characteristics, were highly diverse, as shown on Table 1 which compiles results from the charted data. Evaluations were equally divided between training for healthcare and education professionals (9), and training for families or other carers of people with ED (10). One study evaluated ED training for the general public. We found that training orientation varies with the interests and needs of different trainee groups. While most studies assessed trainee outcomes, future research needs to give greater consideration to patient perspectives, and to the relationship between training and evaluation approaches, improved knowledge, and better care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study extends an earlier investigation on the link between familial traits and eating disorders (EDs), and examines the extent to which selected eating attitudes and psychopathological traits are (a) familial in nature and (b) specific to anorexia- and bulimia-spectrum disorders. A principal components analysis (PCA), used to reduce variables and to characterize main sources of variation, yielded three interpretable factors: eating concerns and symptoms (grouping all eating-related dimensions), dramatic-erratic traits (grouping affective instability, narcissism, and conceptually related dimensions), and obsessive-compulsive traits (grouping compulsivity and restricted expression). Correlations among subjects' factor scores (derived from the PCA) showed two types of transgenerational effects: correspondences between daughters' and parents' psychopathological traits, and between daughters' and mothers' eating concerns. Despite these, relatives of ED probands were not discriminable on any factor score from relatives of controls. These results imply that transgenerational effects exist on eating attitudes and psychopathological traits, but do not uniquely identify families in which clinical ED syndromes occur. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presence of DSM-III-R personality disorders was examined in 67 women with eating disorders (anorexic restricters, anorexic bingers, and bulimics with or without a prior history of anorexia nervosa) and in 25 noneating-disordered women. Additional measures of family functioning were available in 55 of the eating disorders (EDs) and 24 controls. Personality and family disturbances (as measured by the Personality Diagnostic Questionnaire-Revised and the Family Assessment Device) were prevalent among the EDs, but ‘restricter/binger’ differences were not indicated on either measure. Hence results did not support a ‘restricter/binger dichotomy’ concept. They also questioned the degree to which personality problems in ED patients may be consequences of eating disturbances, since severity of personality disorder, while related to reported family dysfunction, was unrelated to severity of eating symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]