Orthorexia and anorexia nervosa: two distinct phenomena? A cross-cultural comparison of orthorexic behaviours in clinical and non-clinical samples.

BACKGROUND: Orthorexia nervosa (ON) is defined as pathological healthful eating. The aim of this study was to investigate whether there is any difference in orthorexic behaviours between clinical and non-clinical groups, and in different cultural contexts. . METHODS: Recruitment involved both female patients with anorexia nervosa (AN) and healthy controls (HC) from Italy and Poland (N = 23 and N = 35 AN patients; and N = 39 and N = 39 HCs, in Italy and Poland, respectively). Assessment of orthorexic behaviours was performed with the ORTO-15 test. RESULTS: Statistically significant differences were found between Italian women in the AN and HC group, whereas no difference between Polish women in the AN and HC group was found. Both Italian groups scored significantly higher than the Polish ones on the ORTO-15. CONCLUSIONS: Differences have been found between the Italian and Polish samples, both in the percentage of individuals with orthorexic behaviours as suggested by an ORTO 15 score below the cutoff, and in the mean ORTO 15 scores in the AN and HC groups, suggesting cross-cultural differences in orthorexic behaviours, whose meaning is currently difficult to understand.

Psychological predictors of body image dissatisfaction in women suffering from eating discorders.

The objective of the present study was to identify factors influencing body image dissatisfaction in female patients with anorexia and bulimia nervosa. 61 women, aged 16 to 31, (M = 21.69; SD = 3.85) filled questionnaires evaluating dissatisfaction with their body (Body Dissatisfaction Scale by Garner & al., 1984), attitudes about the body (Body Attitude Test by Probst & al., 1995), avoidance with regard to body image (Body Image Avoidance Questionnaire by Rosen & al., 1991), negative mood states (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale by Zigmond and Snaith, 1983) as well as self-esteem (Self-Esteem Inventory by Coopersmith, 1984). Negative appreciation of body size, symptoms of depression, grooming and weighting, lack of familiarity with one's own body, as well as low self-esteem in general, could predict the body image dissatisfaction among eating disordered women. The fact of knowing the most important determinants of body image could give indications for the prevention of the cognitive distortions concerning body image.

[The influence of music on pictorial expression of young women--a comparative study of different music styles]. / L'influence de la musique sur l'expression picturale d'adolescentes--une étude comparative entre différents styles de la musique.

Questing one's personal identity and developing a coherent representation of oneself, the other and the world are major tasks in adolescence. Research showed that a satisfactory resolution of the crisis of adolescence can be favoured by psychological counselling based on artistic mediations. The objective of this study consisted in exploring the effect of music on the pictorial expression of a non clinical sample of female adolescents (N=157) aged from 17 to 28 years. We analysed free drawings realised by the test group with the help of a rating scale constructed in a phenomenological and structural perspective (Schiltz, 2006). The adolescents painted under musical induction. We proposed three different styles of music, i.e. baroque music (Georg Friedrich Händel and Johann Sebastian Bach), classical music (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven) and polish ethnical music (Kapela ze Wsi Warszawa-Warsaw Village Band). By using non parametric inferential and multi dimensional statistics, we could show that structural characteristics of music styles lead to differences in formal and content variables on the rating scales for the pictures. The results of our exploratory study open some tracks for future research. It would be pertinent to enlarge the population to other categories of age and to investigate the influence of gender.

[Extracting predictive factors of anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa: an cross-cultural study]. / Determination des facteurs prédictifs de l'anorexie mentale et de la boulimie nerveuse: une étude interculturelle.

This study aims to explore, within the framework of theories of self-regulation, risk profiles for anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa, in two countries of different cultures: Poland and France The studied population consists of 106 women of Polish (from Silesia) and French (from the region around Metz) nationality. We examine a group of 30 Polish and 32 French anorexics as well as 30 Polish and 14 French bulimics. All the participants filled in the EDI by Garner and al. (1983), the SEI by Coopersmith (1984), the GIFS by Maes et al. (2000), the Brief COPE by Carver (1997), the SECS by Van Elderen et al. (1997), the HADS by Zigmond and Snaith (1983) and the IPC by Levenson (1981). Our results indicate that the profile of Polish anorexics closely resembles that of French anorexics. There are two independent variables which play an equally important role: the interiorisation of anger and conflicts in the goals of intellectual development (the importance and at the same time the difficulty of reaching these goals). The factors predicting bulimia nervosa are not the same in the two populations under study.