Set-shifting among adolescents with anorexia nervosa.
OBJECTIVE
Set-shifting difficulties are documented for adults with anorexia nervosa (AN). However, AN typically onsets in adolescents and it is unclear if set-shifting difficulties are a result of chronic AN or present earlier in its course. This study examined whether adolescents with short duration AN demonstrated set-shifting difficulties compared to healthy controls (HC).


METHODS
Data on set-shifting collected from the Delis-Kaplan executive functioning system and Wisconsin card sort task (WCST) as well as eating psychopathology were collected from 32 adolescent inpatients with AN and compared with those from 22 HCs.


RESULTS
There were no differences in set-shifting in adolescents with AN compared to HCs on most measures.


CONCLUSIONS
The findings suggest that set-shifting difficulties in AN may be a consequence of AN. Future studies should explore set-shifting difficulties in a larger sample of adolescents with the AN to determine if there is sub-set of adolescents with these difficulties and determine any relationship of set-shifting to the development of a chronic from of AN.
Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305, USA. fitzpatk@stanford.edu
Kathleen Kara
KK
Fitzpatrick
Alison
A
Darcy
Danielle
D
Colborn
Caroline
C
Gudorf
James
J
Lock
D000293:Adolescent; D000856:Anorexia Nervosa / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D056344:Executive Function; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D012718:Set, Psychology