The Psychology of Bulimia Nervosa

Abstract

for reading and providing detailed feedback on the draft manuscript, and Gillian for her friendship and the many long conversations that we have had in the past three years, and that have contributed greatly to the finished manuscript.My friends and colleagues on the Oxford Doctoral Course in Clinical Psychology at the Isis Education Centre in Oxford also helped enormously, in many ways, throughout the writing of this book. I suspect they are unaware of just how helpful they have been.And, as always, I had exceptionally generous amounts of help from Freddie, Humphrey, Oliver, and Bertha.

Negative Self-Beliefs in Relation to Eating Disorder and Depressive Symptoms: Different Themes Are Characteristic of the Two Sets of Symptoms in Those With Eating Disorders and/or Depression

“…Inclusion of full and partial syndrome anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa in a single group is consistent with evidence that there is considerable overlap between these disorders (Fairburn & Harrison, 2003). As noted previously, the diagnosis of depression in EDs has not often been systematically studied, but the finding that most of the ED group was also depressed (had high levels of depressive symptoms and diagnoses of depression) is consistent with current knowledge of AN and BN (Cooper, 2003). All but one of the ED subgroup was female, though both other subgroups contained a proportion of men.…”

A Preliminary Study of Negative Self-Beliefs in Anorexia Nervosa: A Detailed Exploration of Their Content, Origins and Functional Links to “Not Eating Enough” and Other Characteristic Behaviors

“…While helpful in highlighting important aspects of AN that must be explained by any cognitive theory, both theories have relatively little to say about some important clinical insights and research findings. In particular, neither includes a detailed developmental perspective, taking into account recent findings related to negative self beliefs and the potential role of schema driven maintenance processes (see Cooper (2003) and Waller, Kennerley and Ohanian (in press), for further discussion). Wolff and Serpell (1998) hypothesize that the specific self-beliefs that are important in AN include: 'I am powerless,' 'I am worthless' 'I am fat' and 'I am bad.'…”

Role of attention, memory, and covariation-detection processes in clinically significant eating-disorder symptoms

“…Preoccupation with shape-and weight-related information is central to all cognitive theories of eating disorders (e.g., (Ainsworth et al, 2002;Cooper, 2003Cooper, , 2005Fairburn et al, 2003;Lee & Shafran, 2004;Vitousek & Hollon, 1990)), although performancebased examinations of cognitive processing of such information regarding others are quite rare. The present findings indicate that even other women's shape-and weight-related information is quite salient to and well-remembered by High-Symptom women, relative to other women's affective information, consistent with the expectations of social-comparison theorists (e.g., (Ainsworth et al, 2002;Beebe et al, 1996;Cash, 2002;Corning et al, 2006;Janelle et al, 2003;Rosen, 1997;Thompson et al, 1999)).…”

“…Researchers increasingly have focused on the role of cognitive factors, such as distorted processing of shape-and weight-related information, in the etiology and maintenance of eating-disorder symptoms and in the development of cognitive-behavioral treatments for these symptoms (e.g., (Ainsworth, Waller, & Kennedy, 2002;Cooper, 2003Cooper, , 2005Cooper, Wells, & Todd, 2004;Fairburn, Cooper & Shafran, 2003;Lee & Shafran, 2004;Mizes & Christiano, 1995;Williamson, Muller, Reas, & Thaw, 1999)). For example, Vitousek and colleagues proposed that increased attention to and memory for shape-, weight-, and eatingrelated information play a central role in the development and maintenance of eating-disorder symptoms (e.g., (Vitousek, 1996;Vitousek & Ewald, 1993;Vitousek & Hollon, 1990)).…”