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What drives the excess of physical exercise observed in patients with anorexia nervosa?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 August 2021

L. Di Lodovico ,
H. Hatteea ,
C. Couton ,
P. Duriez ,
J. Treasure  and
P. Gorwood
L. Di Lodovico*
Affiliation:
Hopital Sainte-anne Ghu Paris Psychiatrie Et Neurosciences, Université Paris Descartes, Paris, France
H. Hatteea
Affiliation:
Hopital Sainte-anne Ghu Paris Psychiatrie Et Neurosciences, Université Paris Descartes, Paris, France
C. Couton
Affiliation:
Hopital Sainte-anne Ghu Paris Psychiatrie Et Neurosciences, Université Paris Descartes, Paris, France
P. Duriez
Affiliation:
Groupement Hospitalier Universitaire (ghu) Paris Psychiatry And Neuroscience, Sainte-Anne Hospital, Paris, France
J. Treasure
Affiliation:
Institute Of Psychiatry, King’s College, London, United Kingdom
P. Gorwood
Affiliation:
Hopital Sainte-anne Ghu Paris Psychiatrie Et Neurosciences, Université Paris Descartes, Paris, France
*
*Corresponding author.

Abstract

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Introduction

Anorexia Nervosa (AN) is a severe mental illness characterized by weight reducing strategies such as food restriction, purging behaviours and excessive physical exercise. The persistence of physical exercise despite underweight and its maintaining factors are poorly understood.

Objectives

The aim of this study is to explore the attitudes towards physical exercise and its effects on mood, body image perception and cognitive functioning in patients with AN, and to assess if these effects are associated with trait, or state.

Methods

Eighty-eight patients with AN, 30 unaffected relatives and 89 healthy controls were compared about their attitudes towards three aspects of physical exercise, namely the Exercise Dependence Scale (EDS), the Godin Leisure Time Exercise Questionnaire (GLTEQ) and a standardized effort test. Evaluations of positive and negative affects, cognitive rigidity and body image distortion were repeated at baseline and after the effort test to assess for correlations between the exercise measures and exercise-induced modifications in the three groups.

Results

Patients with AN showed higher scores on the EDS, the GLTEQ and used more effort in the standardized effort test (p<.05). These three aspects of physical exercise correlated with baseline negative emotions (p<.01). AN patients and unaffected relatives, but not controls, showed a marked emotional improvement after physical exercise (p<.01).

Conclusions

Excessive physical exercise seems a trait-associated feature of AN, driven by a state-related effect of physical exercise on emotional wellbeing. The mood-related drive for physical exercise has the characteristics of an endophenotype in the patients of the present sample.

Keywords

physical exerciseanorexia nervosaendophenotypeemotions
Type
Abstract
Information
European Psychiatry , Volume 64 , Special Issue S1: Abstracts of the 29th European Congress of Psychiatry , April 2021 , pp. S353 - S354
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the European Psychiatric Association
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