Measuring the Specific Psychopathology of Eating Disorder Patients

Abstract

Cooper and Fairburn's Eating Disorder Examination (EDE) is a semi-structured interview designed to assess the specific psychopathology of eating disorder subjects. It was employed in a study of 116 Sydney patients for 2 purposes: first, to determine its usefulness in an Australian context; and second, to compare patients with anorexia nervosa, bulimia and atypical eating disorder. The instrument appears to be quite appropriate for studies in Australia. With respect to the second aim, the results emphasize the essential similarity in psychopathology between the three diagnostic groups. The relevance of this latter finding to the categorisation of eating disorders in the DSM-IV proposals is discussed.

The factor structure of the eating disorder examination in clinical and community samples

“…Reported alpha coefficients for the four subscales are variable but generally satisfactory, with values ranging between .71 and .75 for Restraint, .75 and .90 for Eating Concern, .67 and .70 for Weight Concern, and .70 and .82 for Shape Concern. [3][4][5] Subscale test-retest reliability is also satisfactory (rs [ .70) over a 7-day-period and reasonable (rs 5 .50-.88) over a 14-dayperiod. 8,9 Inter-rater correlations typically exceed .90.…”

“…It can be used to diagnose anorexia nervosa (AN), bulimia nervosa (BN), and eating disorders not otherwise specified (EDNOS) according to DSM-IV criteria, and has been validated for use with clinical and non-clinical populations. [3][4][5] The EDE has also been modified for use with children (the Child EDE), 6 and is available in a questionnaire format (the EDE-Questionnaire; EDE-Q). 7 Numerous studies have provided support for the reliability and validity of the EDE.…”

Neuropsychological study of underweight and “weight‐recovered” anorexia nervosa compared with bulimia nervosa and normal controls

“…52 Although these CDR factors suggest which cognitive functions are reflected, they do not imply empirical justifications of dissociations between various aspects of function. 52 The EDE-12 46 was administered as the ''gold standard'' for the assessment of disordered eating, 53 given its utility in assessing a broad range of core psychopathology and outcome in both underweight 54,55 and ''weight-recovered'' AN patients 56 and those suffering with BN. The scale consists of 32 separate items, rated from 0 to 6, which are assessed by semistructured interview.…”

The classification of bulimic eating disorders: a community-based cluster analysis study

“…The overall severity of eating disorder psychopathology may be quantified using the global EDE score (the mean of the five EDE subscale scores (Fairburn & Cooper, 1993)). Tests of the reliability and validity of the EDE support its use (Cooper et al 1989;Wilson & Smith, 1989;Rosen et al 1990;Beumont et al 1993).…”

“…The overall severity of eating disorder psychopathology may be quantified using the global EDE score (the mean of the five EDE subscale scores (Fairburn & Cooper, 1993)). Tests of the reliability and validity of the EDE support its use (Cooper et al 1989;Wilson & Smith, 1989;Rosen et al 1990;Beumont et al 1993).The EDE distinguishes four forms of overeating; objective bulimic episodes, subjective bulimic episodes, episodes of objective overeating and episodes of subjective over-eating. These are mutually exclusive, although it is not uncommon for subjects to have episodes of more than one type.…”