The relationship between punishment sensitivity and treatment outcome in anorexia nervosa

The development, maintenance, and factors influencing treatment outcome in anorexia nervosa (AN) continue to be investigated. In this context, the construct of punishment sensitivity (PS) has received increasing attention. Many studies showed that individuals with AN exhibit elevated PS. A recent study by Jonkers et al. (2022) found that individuals with AN who exhibited higher PS prior to the initiation of therapy showed less reduction in eating disorder symptomatology after treatment. Furthermore, a reduction in PS during therapy also appears to be related to a reduction in eating disorder symptomatology (Jonker et al., 2022). In this study we are going to take these findings under test. In addition, the relationship between PS and AN will be extended to include the factors of depressiveness and anxiety. The interaction of PS, depressiveness, anxiety and the therapy outcome in AN will be investigated with an explorative sensitivity analysis.