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The inability to ignore: distractibility in women with restricting anorexia nervosa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 February 2008

H. Dickson ,
S. Brooks ,
R. Uher ,
K. Tchanturia ,
J. Treasure  and
I. C. Campbell
H. Dickson*
Affiliation:
Section of Eating Disorders, Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, De Crespigny Park, London SE5 8AF, UK
S. Brooks
Affiliation:
Section of Eating Disorders, Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, De Crespigny Park, London SE5 8AF, UK
R. Uher
Affiliation:
Section of Eating Disorders, Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, De Crespigny Park, London SE5 8AF, UK
K. Tchanturia
Affiliation:
Section of Eating Disorders, Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, De Crespigny Park, London SE5 8AF, UK
J. Treasure
Affiliation:
Section of Eating Disorders, Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, De Crespigny Park, London SE5 8AF, UK
I. C. Campbell
Affiliation:
Section of Eating Disorders, Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, De Crespigny Park, London SE5 8AF, UK
*
*Address for correspondence: H. Dickson, PO59, Eating Disorders Unit, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, De Crespigny Park, London SE5 8AF, UK. (Email: [email protected])
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Abstract

Background

Attentional difficulties reported in individuals with anorexia nervosa (AN) may be due to preferential processing of disease-salient stimuli at a pre-attentive or at a conscious level or to a general problem in attention. Attentional difficulties may be associated with duration of illness.

Method

Female participants with AN (restricting subtype; n=24) and healthy comparison women (n=24) were randomly allocated to subliminal or supraliminal exposure to visual stimuli (food, neutral and aversive images) while performing the 1-back and 2-back working-memory tasks.

Results

Participants with AN made fewer errors than the healthy comparison group in the subliminal condition but significantly more errors in the supraliminal condition [condition×group interaction, F(1, 44)=6.82, p<0.01]: this was irrespective of stimulus type (food, neutral and aversive) and task (1-back or 2-back). The total number of errors made correlated positively with the duration of the AN for both the 1-back task (rs=0.46, p<0.05) and for the 2-back task (rs=0.53, p<0.01).

Conclusions

Decreased ability to concentrate in the presence of explicit distracters is a feature of AN and is associated with longer duration of illness. This phenomenon could be addressed in psychological interventions.

Keywords

Anorexia nervosacognitiondistractibilitysubliminal stimulisupraliminal stimuli
Type
Original Articles
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 38 , Issue 12 , December 2008 , pp. 1741 - 1748
Copyright
Copyright © 2008 Cambridge University Press

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