Visual evaluation of food amount in patients affected by Anorexia Nervosa.
OBJECTIVE
The study compares visual evaluation of an amount of food and an amount of nonedible objects in patients affected by Anorexia Nervosa and control subjects.


METHODS
59 anorexic subjects were asked to evaluate an amount of candies and plastic bricks shown to them. Their answers were compared to both the real number of objects and the parallel evaluations given by 56 control subjects.


RESULTS
There were no significant differences in stimuli evaluation between patients affected by AN and control subjects. Both groups reported a significantly lower number of both candies and bricks in comparison to their real number.


CONCLUSIONS
In an experimental condition not related with food intake there is the same under-evaluation of the amount of presented food and nonedible objects among patients affected by AN and Control Subjects. The clinical finding of overestimation of food intake among patients affected by AN seems not to be due to a perceptive bias.
Vinai
Piergiuseppe
P
Studi Cognitivi Research Group, Post-graduate Cognitive Psychotherapy School, Foro Bonaparte 57, 20121 Milano, Italy. piervinai@tin.it
Cardetti
Silvia
S
Ferrato
Noemi
N
Vallauri
Paola
P
Carpegna
Gabriella
G
Masante
Donatella
D
Luxardi
Gianluigi
G
Todisco
Patrizia
P
Manara
Fausto
F
Ruggiero
Giovanni Maria
GM
Sassaroli
Sandra
S
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000856:Anorexia Nervosa / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000178:diet therapy / Q000523:psychology*; D052018:Bulimia Nervosa / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D002182:Candy; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D004435:Eating; D002149:Energy Intake; D005260:Female; D005502:Food; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D010469:Perceptual Distortion; D012016:Reference Values; D012858:Size Perception; D015430:Weight Gain