title: Poor decision making in male patients with anorexia nervosa.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Decision making is impaired in female patients with anorexia nervosa (AN), but it is unclear if the same impairment is present in male patients with AN.
  
  
  METHODS
  Decision making was assessed in 48 AN individuals (19 male and 29 female patients) and 61 healthy controls (20 male and 41 female patients) using the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Both male and female patients with AN performed significantly worse than healthy controls on the IGT. No gender differences in IGT performance were found across groups. Male patients had higher impulsivity scores, but impulsivity had not predicted poor decision-making performance.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Impaired decision making is present in male and female patients with AN. These data suggest that male patients with AN are very similar to female patients in decision making, and as a result, treatment approaches that seek to improve this ability should be similar in both genders.
authors.affiliation: Division of Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, London, UK. Kate.Tchanturia@kcl.ac.uk
authors.forename: Kate
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tchanturia
authors.forename: Pei-Chi
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Liao
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Forcano
authors.forename: Fernando
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Fernández-Aranda
authors.forename: Rudolf
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Uher
authors.forename: Janet
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Treasure
authors.forename: Ulrike
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Schmidt
authors.forename: Eva
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Penelo
authors.forename: Roser
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Granero
authors.forename: Susana
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jiménez-Murcia
authors.forename: Isabel
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Sánchez
authors.forename: Iain C
authors.initials: IC
authors.lastname: Campbell
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000856:Anorexia Nervosa / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D003657:Decision Making; D056344:Executive Function; D005715:Gambling / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D007175:Impulsive Behavior / Q000523:psychology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D017678:Sex Distribution; D013030:Spain; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D006113:United Kingdom; D055815:Young Adult