title: Threat-related attentional bias in anorexia nervosa.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Attentional bias (AB) modification treatment targeting general or social anxiety has been recently highlighted as a potential novel approach for the treatment of anorexia nervosa (AN). The purpose of this study was to examine threat-related AB in patients with ANand healthy control participants (HC) and the relationship between AB and eating disorder and other psychopathology.
  
  
  METHODS
  Forty-nine female outpatients with AN or Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified, Anorexia Type (EDNOS-AN), and 44 female HC completed a dot-probe task with threat words and a range of self-report measures assessing eating disorder symptoms and other psychopathology.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There was no evidence for a differential threat-related AB in AN patients despite elevated anxiety in this group. The AB-index, a parameter of the magnitude of attention allocation when two competing stimuli are presented, did not correlate with any of the self-report measures. However, patients with AN responded significantly more slowly to the probe as compared to controls, regardless of the valence or position of the stimuli.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results suggest that the AB in AN patients may be specific to eating disorder-relevant anxieties.
authors.affiliation: Section of Eating Disorders, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, De Crespigny Park, London, SE5 8AF, United Kingdom; Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Dresden University of Technology, 46, 01187, Dresden, Germany; Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus, Dresden University of Technology, 01307, Dresden, Germany.
authors.forename: Ilka Schober
authors.initials: IS
authors.lastname: Dipl-Psych
authors.forename: Beth
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Renwick
authors.forename: Hannah
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: de Jong
authors.forename: Martha
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kenyon
authors.forename: Helen
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sharpe
authors.forename: Corinna
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Jacobi
authors.forename: Ulrike
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Schmidt
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000856:Anorexia Nervosa / Q000523:psychology*; D001007:Anxiety; D001288:Attention; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D004644:Emotions; D001068:Feeding and Eating Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D011581:Psychological Tests; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: ABMT; anorexia nervosa; anxiety; attention; attentional bias modification; bias; eating disorder