Assessing Psychological Remission in Adolescent Anorexia Nervosa: A Comparison of Patient and Parent Report.

OBJECTIVE: The definition and assessment of remission in anorexia nervosa (AN) needs greater consensus. Particularly in adolescents, the use of patient-reported composite indices (such as the Eating Disorder Examination [EDE] Global Score) as the sole measure of psychological remission has the potential to obscure patients' true clinical status, given developmental factors and the propensity towards symptom minimization in AN. METHOD: End of treatment (EOT) data from a randomized controlled trial comparing two formats of manualized family-based treatment for adolescents with AN (N = 106) were analyzed. Participants completed the EDE, and their parents completed a parent-as-informant version of the EDE (Parent Eating Disorder Examination; PEDE). Rates of remission were compared across indices (i.e., EDE Global Score vs. diagnostic item analysis) and informant (i.e., adolescent vs. parent), both independently and in combination with the achievement of a percent median body mass index (% mBMI) greater than or equal to 95%. RESULTS: For both adolescent and parent reports, there were higher rates of remission when defined by Global Score than when defined by EDE or PEDE diagnostic items. There were no significant differences in remission rates based on informant. DISCUSSION: In the assessment of remission in AN, the EDE Global Score may not detect some adolescents who continue to exhibit clinically significant psychological symptoms. This study supports a detailed, multidimensional approach to assessing remission in adolescent AN to optimize sensitivity to patients' diagnostic profile. Future research should explore whether parent-child concordance on measures of ED psychopathology varies over the course of treatment.

Parent version of the Eating Disorder Examination: Reliability and validity in a treatment-seeking sample.

BACKGROUND: Assessment of eating disorders (ED) in youth relies heavily on self-report, yet persistent lack of recognition of the presence and/or seriousness of symptoms can be intrinsic to ED. This study examines the psychometric properties of a semi-structured interview, the parent version of the Eating Disorder Examination (PEDE), developed to systematically assess caregiver report of symptoms. METHODS: A multi-site, clinical sample of youth (N = 522; age range: 12 to 18 years) seeking treatment for anorexia nervosa (AN) and subsyndromal AN were assessed using the Eating Disorder Examination (EDE) for youth and the PEDE for collateral caregiver report. RESULTS: Internal consistencies of the four PEDE subscales were on par with established ranges for the EDE. Significant medium-sized correlations and poor to moderate levels of agreement were found between the corresponding subscales on each measure. For the PEDE, confirmatory factor analysis of the EDE four-factor model provided a poor fit; an exploratory factor analysis indicated that a 3-factor model better fits the PEDE. CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest that the PEDE has psychometric properties on par with the original EDE. The addition of the caregiver perspective may provide incremental information that can aid in the assessment of AN in youth. Future research is warranted to establish psychometric properties of the PEDE in broader transdiagnostic ED samples.

Assessments for eating disorders rely primarily on self-report; yet, the denial of symptoms or symptom severity among adolescents with anorexia nervosa can complicate assessment and delay treatment in this population. The Parent Eating Disorder Examination (PEDE) is the first semi-structured interview formally developed to improve childhood eating disorder assessment by including caregiver perspectives. In this study, a large sample of adolescents with anorexia nervosa completed a self-report interview (the Eating Disorder Examination or EDE) and their parents completed the PEDE. The PEDE appeared to measure parents' report of their child's eating disorder symptoms consistently. Results from both interviews were related to one another but did not completely agree. This suggests that in an eating disorder assessment, the PEDE can provide additional information from caregivers that might reduce diagnostic confusion and lead to earlier intervention for youth with anorexia nervosa.

Body checking and avoidance among dancers.

Dancers are at heightened risk for eating disorders (EDs) and have job and training demands that obscure ED assessment and likely impede treatment. Two behavioral manifestations of ED psychopathology that may present uniquely in a dance environment are body checking and body avoidance. The current study sought to provide a foundational understanding of the phenomenology of body checking and avoidance among dancers by assessing the reliability (i.e., internal consistency) of existing body checking and avoidance measures and the relationships, or convergent validity, between measures of body checking and avoidance and measures of related constructs. Eighty professional and pre-professional (i.e., conservatory level) dancers (78.8 % female) from seven dance genres completed self-report measures of body checking and avoidance, ED pathology, clinical perfectionism, depression, and anxiety. Across the dancer sample, body checking and avoidance measures demonstrated adequate internal consistency. More frequent body checking and body avoidance was strongly related to higher levels of ED pathology. There were moderate to strong correlations between body checking and body avoidance and clinical perfectionism, depression, and anxiety such that higher body checking and body avoidance was related to higher clinical perfectionism, depression, and anxiety. Exploratory analyses found no significant differences between ballet dancers and dancers of other dance genres; professional dancers scored in the normative range on measures of body checking and body avoidance. Dancers' qualitative descriptions of body checking and avoidance revealed behaviors not included in existing questionnaires, such as unique mirror use behaviors, technology-assisted body checking, and the checking and avoidance of body parts relevant to the dance-specific body ideal. Results support the inclusion of body checking and avoidance interventions in ED treatments for dancers (particularly pre-professional dancers) and emphasize the need for dancer-specific ED assessment methods.

Psychometric properties of the Parent Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the psychometric properties of the Parent Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire (PEDE-Q), developed to improve eating disorder (ED) assessment among youth by including parents as informants. METHODS: A multi-site, transdiagnostic sample of 355 adolescents with EDs completed the Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire (EDE-Q) and their parents completed the PEDE-Q. RESULTS: The internal consistencies of the PEDE-Q subscales were on par with established EDE-Q ranges (.73 to .90), both when examined using the original four-factor EDE-Q subscales and the seven-item, three-factor subscales of the brief EDE-Q. Statistically significant medium- to large-sized correlations and poor to moderate levels of agreement were found between the corresponding EDE-Q and PEDE-Q subscales. Receiver-operator characteristic (ROC) curves showed that the PEDE-Q had a statistically significant area under the curve (AUC) to maximize sensitivity and specificity in diagnosing full-syndrome AN, whereas the EDE-Q did not. Based on chi-square analyses, the PEDE-Q identified a statistically significantly greater number of AN cases than the EDE-Q. The EDE-Q yielded a BN diagnosis more frequently than the PEDE-Q, although this difference was not statistically significant. DISCUSSION: Results suggest that the PEDE-Q has good psychometric properties and provides incremental information that can aid in the assessment and diagnosis of adolescents with EDs, particularly those with AN. PUBLIC SIGNIFICANCE: There exist complex challenges to identifying clinically significant eating disorders among youth. The PEDE-Q is a questionnaire measure that improves eating disorder assessment among children and adolescents by asking parents to report on the symptoms and behaviors they have observed in their child and that youth may not fully disclose. The PEDE-Q can aid in the diagnosis of adolescents with eating disorders, particularly those with anorexia nervosa.

Diseases of affluence? A systematic review of the literature on socioeconomic diversity in eating disorders.

The stereotype that eating disorders (ED) primarily present among individuals of higher socioeconomic status (SES) has long persisted in popular and professional perception. This belief has likely contributed to disparities in ED identification and treatment, particularly among those of lower SES backgrounds. The objective of this article was to systematically review the literature investigating socioeconomic diversity in distinct ED diagnoses. A PRISMA search was conducted to identify studies that empirically assessed the association between ED pathology and indicators of SES via PubMed and PsycINFO. This search generated 13,538 articles, of which 62 articles published between 1973 and August 2020 met criteria for inclusion in the review. Included studies were primarily cross-sectional and covered diagnoses of anorexia nervosa (AN), bulimia nervosa (BN), and binge eating disorder (BED), with quality ratings of poor, fair, and good. Results are examined in the context of studies' sampling methods, operationalization of SES, and statistical analyses. There is no consistent pattern of evidence to suggest a relationship between high SES and ED. Instead, all ED present across a wide range of socioeconomic backgrounds. Limitations included the predominance of cross-sectional study designs and poor to fair quality ratings. Future research should include adequately powered, community-based longitudinal studies that examine how sociocultural factors, including SES, intersect to influence ED risk and treatment outcome. The existing data suggest an urgent need to prioritize affordable and accessible ED treatment.