Emotion recognition and alexithymia in females with non-clinical disordered eating.
OBJECTIVE
The aims were to determine if emotion recognition deficits observed in eating disorders generalize to non-clinical disordered eating and to establish if other psychopathological and personality factors contributed to, or accounted for, these deficits.


METHODS
Females with high (n=23) and low (n=22) scores on the Eating Disorder Inventory (EDI) were assessed on their ability to recognise emotion from videotaped social interactions. Participants also completed a face memory task, a Stroop task, and self-report measures of alexithymia, depression and anxiety.


RESULTS
Relative to the low EDI group, high EDI participants exhibited a general deficit in recognition of emotion, which was related to their scores on the alexithymia measure and the bulimia subscale of the EDI. They also exhibited a specific deficit in the recognition of anger, which was related to their scores on the body dissatisfaction subscale of the EDI.


CONCLUSIONS
In line with clinical eating disorders, non-clinical disordered eating is associated with emotion recognition deficits. However, the nature of these deficits appears to be dependent upon the type of eating psychopathology and the degree of co-morbid alexithymia.
Ridout
Nathan
N
Clinical and Cognitive Neurosciences, School of Life and Health Sciences, Aston University, Birmingham, B4 7ET, United Kingdom. n.ridout@aston.ac.uk
Thom
Clare
C
Wallis
Deborah J
DJ
D000339:Affect; D000342:Affective Symptoms / Q000523:psychology*; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D015992:Body Mass Index; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005149:Facial Expression; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000502:physiology / Q000523:psychology*; D001068:Feeding and Eating Disorders / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012919:Social Behavior; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult