NCT06439160

Exploring the Changes in Social Interaction and Its Protective Features in Anorexia Nervosa

• Status: Completed
• Phase: —
• Study type: Observational
• Enrollment: 68 (actual)
• Sponsor: Istituto Auxologico Italiano · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 65 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

Anorexia Nervosa (AN) is an eating disorder often characterised by restriction of food intake, being underweight, body image uneasiness, and the possibility of binge eating, purging, fasting behaviours, and excessive exercising. Despite weight and eating habits being one, and perhaps the most recognizable, components of AN, AN is a multidimensional disease. For example, individuals affected by AN might show psychological suffering, such as depression and anxiety. For example, social anxiety disorder/social phobia is the first or second most common comorbid anxiety in AN (i.e. prevalence rates ranging from 16% to 88.2% in AN against 12% in the general population). Moreover, the highest the level of social anxiety the highest the severity of the eating disorder psychopathology. This latter component resonates with findings on the difficulties observed in people affected by AN in creating and maintaining satisfactory relationships with others. These evidences tell us the importance to take into account the social components/skills of people affected by AN. The development of social components/skills of people affected by AN during their recovery can be considered as a protective factor for future relapse. This would be of relevance for the creation of rehabilitative programs.

Detailed description

Anorexia Nervosa (AN) is an eating disorder often characterised by restriction of food intake, being underweight, body image uneasiness, and the possibility of binge eating, purging, fasting behaviours, and excessive exercising. AN is of relevance for the health care system because of the high mortality rates, high psychiatric comorbidity, high suicide risk, and because of the high costs for the health system. Despite weight and eating habits being one, and perhaps the most recognizable, components of AN, AN is a multidimensional disease. For example, individuals affected by AN might show psychological suffering, such as depression and anxiety. For example, social anxiety disorder/social phobia is the first or second most common comorbid anxiety in AN (i.e. prevalence rates ranging from 16% to 88.2% in AN against 12% in the general population). Moreover, the highest the level of social anxiety the highest the severity of the eating disorder psychopathology. This latter component resonates with findings on the difficulties observed in people affected by AN in creating and maintaining satisfactory relationships with others. These evidences tell us the importance to take into account the social components/skills of people affected by AN. Therefore, we believe it would be relevant to understand whether our treatments change the social components/skills of the people affected by AN who access our ward's multidisciplinary inpatient intensive rehabilitation treatment. Moreover, it would be important to evaluate the protective role of participants' social components/skills in the changes in their psychopathology. Despite our rehabilitative activities not having a specific focus on sociality, the activities are conducted on a 1:1 or group basis. This means that our activities have an intrinsic relational and socializing value. The purpose of the study lays on two outcomes: * Primary outcome: evaluation of the short-term effects (T0 vs T1) of the multidisciplinary inpatient intensive rehabilitation treatment on the social components/skills of people affected by AN. * Secondary outcome: evaluation of the long-term effects (T0 vs T2) of the multidisciplinary inpatient intensive rehabilitation treatment on the social components/skills of people affected by AN. The development of social components/skills of people affected by AN during their recovery can be considered as a protective factor for future relapse. This would be of relevance for the creation of rehabilitative programs

Conditions

• Anorexia Nervosa

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Participants will be asked to complete a series of questionnaires at t0, t1 and t2	Individuals will be people who voluntarily will take part in a residential three to six weeks multidisciplinary inpatient intensive rehabilitation treatment targeting the improvement of psychological well-being, body image, and psychopathology for anorexia nervosa. Therefore, at T0 (at the beginning of the treatment) and T1 (at the end of the rehabilitation programme), participants will fill out some self-report questionnaires to evaluate the effect of the multidisciplinary inpatient intensive rehabilitation treatment on different outcomes (i.e. psychological well-being, eating pathology, body image, and comorbidities), among which their social components/skills. Moreover, we will ask participants to complete 3 months after discharge the questionnaires related to the social components/skills only. Participants will be contacted by email, within the email participants will find a link to click on for the completion of the questionnaires.

Timeline

• Start date: 2024-01-10
• Primary completion: 2024-10-31
• Completion: 2024-10-31
• First posted: 2024-06-03
• Last updated: 2025-05-01

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Italy