0000000000328476
AUTHOR
Alyson J. Bond
Assessment of test-meal induced autonomic arousal in anorexic, bulimic and control females
This study attempted to measure three different physiological responses to food intake in eating disordered subjects. Skin conductance level (SCL), heart rate and electroencephalogram were recorded before, during and after a test-meal in 42 females (14 anorexic inpatients, 10 bulimic outpatients and 18 control subjects). Significant increase in SCL during the meal was found in anorexics only. Pre-meal SCL was lower in bulimics than in controls and anorexics. No changes were found on heart rate or electroencephalogram in all groups of subjects. This suggests that anorexic inpatients may display a measurable arousal when confronted with a meal, whereas bulimic outpatients and control subjects…
Selective Processing of Food– and Body–Related Information and Autonomic Arousal in Patients with Eating Disorders
Both attentional bias (using the modified Stroop Task) and autonomic reactivity (skin conductance level) to food- and body-related information were assessed in 25 patients with eating disorders (15 patients with anorexia, 10 patients with bulimia) and 18 women controls. Patients with anorexia showed the greatest interference in color-naming food-related words. However, on this occasion there were no differences in body condition, probably because of heterogeneity of clinical samples and because the control group were staff members, so the target information was very familiar to them. The groups differed in their autonomic reactivity while performing the Stroop, the patients with anorexia re…