title: What does remission tell us about women with eating disorders? Investigating applications of various remission definitions and their associations with quality of life.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To compare remission rates, determine level of agreement and identify quality of life (QoL) distinctions across a broad spectrum of remission definitions among patients with eating disorders (ED).
  
  
  METHODS
  Women (N=195; 94 AN, 24 BN, and 77 EDNOS) from inpatient and partial hospital ED programs participated in a study of treatment outcomes. Remission rates were evaluated with percentages, kappa coefficients identified level of agreement and Mann-Whitney-Wilcoxon tests with Bonferroni corrections determined differences in quality of life between remitted and not remitted patients by remission definition.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Depending on remission definition used, the percent of remitted patients varied from 13.2% to 40.5% for AN, 15.0% to 47.6% for BN and 24.2% to 53.1% for EDNOS. Several definitions demonstrated "very good" agreement across diagnoses. Remission was associated with higher quality of life in psychological, physical/cognitive, financial and work/school domains on a disease-specific measure, and in mental but not physical functioning on a generic measure.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Remission rates vary widely depending on the definition used; several definitions show strong agreement. Remission is associated with quality of life, and often approximates scores for women who do not have an eating disorder. The ED field would benefit from adopting uniform criteria, which would allow for more accurate comparison of remission rates across therapeutic interventions, treatment modalities and facilities. We recommend using the Bardone-Cone criteria because it includes assessment of psychological functioning, was found to be applicable across diagnoses, demonstrated good agreement, and was able to distinguish quality of life differences between remitted and not remitted patients.
authors.affiliation: Park Nicollet Melrose Center, 3525 Monterey Drive, Minneapolis, MN 55416, USA; Private Practice, 5101 Olson Memorial Highway, Golden Valley, MN 55422, USA. Electronic address: diann@diannackard.com.
authors.forename: Diann M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Ackard
authors.affiliation: Park Nicollet Institute, 3800 Park Nicollet Boulevard, Minneapolis, MN 55416, USA.
authors.forename: Sara A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Richter
authors.affiliation: Park Nicollet Melrose Center, 3525 Monterey Drive, Minneapolis, MN 55416, USA.
authors.forename: Amber M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Egan
authors.affiliation: Park Nicollet Melrose Center, 3525 Monterey Drive, Minneapolis, MN 55416, USA.
authors.forename: Catherine L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Cronemeyer
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000856:Anorexia Nervosa / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D052018:Bulimia Nervosa / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D003210:Concept Formation; D001068:Feeding and Eating Disorders / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007297:Inpatients; D011788:Quality of Life; D012074:Remission Induction; D016896:Treatment Outcome
keywords: AN; Anorexia nervosa; BN; Bulimia nervosa; ED; EDNOS; Eating disorder; Eating disorder not otherwise specified; Quality of life; Remission; anorexia nervosa; bulimia nervosa; eating disorder; eating disorder not otherwise specified