title: Interpersonal motives in anorexia nervosa: the fear of losing one's autonomy.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study examined the widely held but insufficiently studied hypothesis of autonomy disturbances in anorexia nervosa.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total sample of 112 participants comprising patients with acute anorexia nervosa (AN), women recovered from anorexia nervosa (REC), clinical controls (CC), and healthy controls (HC) completed measures of dependency and intimacy strivings, as well as measures of frustrations of these same strivings.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In comparison to HC and CC, AN showed a stronger motivation to avoid dependency and lower strivings for intimacy. Compared with HC, but not with CC, AN also showed stronger frustrations of the same motives. Whereas REC did not differ from AN regarding avoidance of dependency, they reported lower frustration of dependency avoidance (i.e., less actual experiences of dependency). Finally, REC reported higher intimacy motivation as well as better satisfaction of intimacy motivation as compared with AN.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The present findings suggest that a pronounced motive of avoiding dependency may be a vulnerability factor for anorexia nervosa that is disorder-specific and trait-like. Frustrations of this motive seem to be associated with psychopathology.
authors.affiliation: University Hospital Heidelberg, Department of General Internal Medicine and Psychosomatics, Germany. timo.brockmeyer@med.uni-heidelberg.de
authors.forename: Timo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Brockmeyer
authors.forename: Martin Grosse
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Holtforth
authors.forename: Hinrich
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Bents
authors.forename: Annette
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kämmerer
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Herzog
authors.forename: Hans-Christoph
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Friederich
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000856:Anorexia Nervosa / Q000523:psychology*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005239:Fear / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D005639:Frustration; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008875:Middle Aged; D009042:Motivation / Q000502:physiology; D026684:Personal Autonomy; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult