Meal-Based Exposure and Response Prevention in Anorexia Nervosa

Study Summary

Patients with anorexia nervosa (AN), a serious psychiatric disorder, exhibit restricted dietary intake and endorse fear of consuming calorie-dense foods, which in turn drives weight loss. Premorbid anxious personality traits and comorbid anxiety disorders are common in patients with AN. Although intensive behavioral treatment programs can achieve weight restoration in a majority of adults with AN, relapse rates are high. Predictors of relapse include elevated state anxiety and low dietary variety, including lower intake of fat, after discharge, which suggests that relapse following weight restoration may be related to inadequate fear extinction to high energy density (ED) foods during treatment and consequent resumption of restrictive eating patterns. Despite evidence of anxiety's role in the onset and maintenance of restricted eating behavior, utilizing exposure and response prevention (EX-RP) and meal-based interventions to reduce food-related fears is understudied. EX-RP is the gold standard of treatment for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). This proposal aims to test the efficacy of an adjunct meal-based EX-RP intervention to reduce food-related fears during intensive behavioral weight restoration in hospitalized patients with AN in comparison to a control treatment, Motivational Interviewing. The investigators will assess changes in a) self-reported anxiety regarding consumption of high-ED foods, b) physiological (skin conductance and heart rate variability) responses to imagined consumption of food items elicited utilizing a visual food cue task, and c) caloric intake of a challenging test meal pre- and post-treatment. A secondary aim is to assess the relationship of early treatment response to EX-RP, operationalized as a reduction in self-reported anxiety within the first three weeks of treatment, and end-of-treatment as well as six-month post-discharge outcomes. Helping patients tolerate food-related anxiety and increase dietary variety across meal contex

Primary Outcome

Participants will view images of low- and high-ED foods, and of office products for 8 seconds each. Skin Conductance Response (microsiemens) will be recorded from electrodes placed on the palmar surface of the middle phalanges of the 2nd and 3rd fingers on the non-dominant hand.

Conditions Studied

Interventions

• BEHAVIORAL Motivational Interviewing
• BEHAVIORAL Exposure and Response Prevention

Study Locations (1)