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Out of control?: Inhibition processes in eating disorders from a personality and cognitive perspective

  1. Laurence Claes PhD1,*,
  2. James E. Mitchell MD, PhD2,
  3. Walter Vandereycken MD, PhD1,3

Article first published online: 17 OCT 2011

DOI: 10.1002/eat.20966

Issue

International Journal of Eating Disorders

International Journal of Eating Disorders

Volume 45, Issue 3, pages 407–414, April 2012

Additional Information

How to Cite

Claes, L., Mitchell, J. E. and Vandereycken, W. (2012), Out of control?: Inhibition processes in eating disorders from a personality and cognitive perspective. Int. J. Eat. Disord., 45: 407–414. doi: 10.1002/eat.20966

Author Information

  1. 1

    Department of Psychology, Catholic University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

  2. 2

    Neuropsychiatric Research Institute (NRI) and Department of Clinical Neuroscience, University of North Dakota, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Fargo, North Dakota

  3. 3

    Alexian Brothers Psychiatric Hospital, Tienen, Belgium

*Department of Psychology Tiensestraat 102 B-3000 Leuven, Belgium

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 8 MAR 2012
  2. Article first published online: 17 OCT 2011
  3. Manuscript Accepted: 5 SEP 2011

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Keywords:

  • disinhibition;
  • personality;
  • neuropsychology;
  • eating disorders

Abstract

Objective:

The present study examined the role of “a breakdown in inhibition” as a mechanism to explain differences in impulsivity between restrictive and bingeing/purging eating disorders (ED). Two types of inhibition (i.e., executive and reactive inhibition) were assessed by means of personality and neuropsychological tests.

Method:

Forty-eight female in patients with ED completed the Effortful Control Scale, the BISBAS scales, and a set of neuropsychological tests.

Results:

The results showed that executive inhibition measures were able to differentiate restrictive from bingeing/purging ED subtypes. Patients with ED and bingeing/purging behavior scored significantly lower on the Effortful Control Scale, needed more time to finish the Trail Making Test/STROOP, and showed more reaction time variability on the Go No-Go task. We did not find significant associations between personality and neuropsychological measures of executive/reactive inhibition.

Discussion:

Insight in the breakdown of inhibition in bingeing/purging patients can increase our understanding of impulse-control disorders and guide the development of tools to improve effortful control. © 2011 by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (Int J Eat Disord 2012)

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