Design a new treatment for anorexia nervosa | Fitness for Health

British researchers have designed a short video clip, including visual and aural elements to combat anxiety and food refusal experienced by people with anorexia nervosa (AN). Can be played in ?iPod? and ?P4? and is a new treatment modality based on the theory that the image is a key element in the instinctive and emotional reactions. The proposal outlined in the latest issue of ?Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics?.

Interventions that use visual elements to disrupt the production of images and emotional reactions have proven effective in reducing anxiety related to eating and emotional reactions.


So far, the impact of these videos in anorexia has been investigated in a small number of cases, the objective of that study was to confirm previous findings on this tool in a larger sample size.

Thus, the video was compared to a control condition musical two different populations of patients with anorexia nervosa and a control group composed of healthy subjects (HCs).

The hypothesis was that participants with anorexia consume more food than the test and experience a lower level of anxiety watching the video and that no changes would be observed in this variable in the control group.

The 20-minute video featuring images and audio specific eating disorders, while the music used in the control group were 20 minutes of classical modern music. The participants, women between 18 and 55, were 19 members of the control group and 18 patients who had suffered for an average of 11.4 years problems of anorexia nervosa.

In the group of women with anorexia, there were great variations in the amount of food consumed, but ate significantly more food on the conditions set by the video. Additionally, this group showed a greater reduction in anxiety and negative thoughts and more good humor.

There was a reduction of attention bias to food pictures were recorded under the conditions set by the video, but insufficient to the discoveries made negligible.

While in the control group, there were no differences in the amount of food consumed or changes in visual analog scales. He was, however, a trend toward greater reduction in attention bias towards food with music but not with the test video.

Thus, the study shows that people with anorexia nervosa consume much more food when they envision this special video when listening to music, repeating the results of the case series studied previously.

Moreover, this was accompanied by a significant reduction in intrusive thoughts, anxiety and improved mood. Attention bias toward food-related stimuli was also reduced under the conditions laid down by the video of the study but failed to reach significance due to its low power.

No differences between the two conditions in the control group, except for a no significant reduction of attention bias in the group under the conditions that made the music.

The pattern of response in the control group differed from the group of patients with anorexia in no change in the amount of food consumed, anxiety, intrusive thoughts or mood.

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