Some hope for a dimensional assessment? A critical review of psychometric validated (semi-)structured interview to assess eating disorders.

OBJECTIVE: Given that eating disorders (EDs) are considered one of the deadliest mental illnesses, the development of appropriate assessment instruments is a necessity. Despite the extensive literature on assessing EDs, there has been a lack of focus on semi-structured interviews. The purpose of this article is to provide a comprehensive review of psychometrically validated semi-structured interviews for EDs. METHODS: Included studies (N = 24) were required to present a semi-structured interview for EDs that has been validated through a psychometric process. The APA PsycNet, MEDLINE, APA Psycinfo, Pubmed, and Health & Psychosocial Instruments databases were searched. The literature search included publications through May 2024, with no earliest year restriction. RESULTS: A total of six instruments were identified and reviewed in terms of conceptual design, purpose and content, psychometric characteristics, and strengths and limitations. Three main findings were highlighted: (a) only half of the instruments are up to date; (b) the instruments are based on either a categorical or a mixed categorical-dimensional approach; and (c) the predominance of the categorical approach. CONCLUSIONS: The results are discussed regarding the conceptual approaches of the instrument to provide clinical and research implications. Despite the many strengths of the instrument, additional psychometric research is needed.

Sinful Foods: Measuring Implicit Associations Between Food Categories and Moral Attributes in Anorexic, Orthorexic, and Healthy Subjects.

Recently, neurocognitive studies have shown that food categorization is sensitive to both the properties of the food stimuli (e.g., calorie content) and the individual characteristics of subjects (e.g., BMI, eating disorders) asked to categorize these stimuli. Furthermore, groups of patients with eating disorders (ED) were described as relying more on moral criteria to form food categories than were control subjects. The present studies built on these seminal articles and aimed to determine whether certain food properties might trigger moral categories preferentially in subjects suffering from ED and in the general population. Using a Go/No-Go Association Task, Study 1 focused on the extent to which food categories are laden with moral attributes in ED patients compared to control subjects. Study 2 was a follow-up with a different design (an Implicit Association Test), another food variable (calorie content), and two non-clinical subgroups (orthorexic and healthy control subjects). Results revealed for the first time implicit associations between food variables cueing for energy density and moral attributes in the general population, the population suffering from anorexia nervosa, and subjects suffering from disordered eating such as orthorexia nervosa. These findings suggest that moralization of food is a pervasive phenomenon that can be measured with methods reputed to be less vulnerable to self-presentation or social desirability biases.