Cognitive and emotional processes involved in eating disorders (PCE-TCA)
In collaboration with Hélène Mottier.
Eating disorders (EDs) are characterized by pathological eating and weight control behaviors (Treasure et al., 2020). Representations related to weight, body shape, and eating are central to them. Their prevalence is estimated to be 8.4% in women and 2.2% in men. According to the DSM-5-TR, several disorders are grouped under the ED category, namely anorexia nervosa (restriction of food intake leading to significant weight loss), bulimia (episodes of excessive food intake associated with compensatory behaviors, often inappropriate, to avoid weight gain) and binge eating disorder (episodes of excessive food intake without compensatory behaviors). A recently proposed pathology, orthorexia, which translates to obsessive concerns about healthy eating, is not yet integrated into the DSM but is the subject of increasing research (Horovitz & Argyrides, 2023). EDs involve many specific behaviors, emotional problems, and cognitive distortions (Shankland, 2020).
In cognitive psychopathology, emotions and cognitions would have an impact on the development, maintenance, and recurrence of psychopathological states (Van der Linden et al., 2000) such as EDs. This perspective tends to better understand these psychopathological states and to rely on cognitive, emotional, and social dysfunctions associated with them in order to identify their organization, functioning, and neural substrates (Van der Linden et al., 2008). Ultimately, this approach aims to clarify the relationships between symptoms and neurobiological abnormalities as well as the development of new assessment and therapeutic methods. The aim of this project is therefore to study the cognitive and emotional processes involved in eating disorders.
The project will consist of several phases including:
a systematic literature review,
the examination of cognitive and emotional functioning in all EDs,
the study of the impact of the dysfunctions identified previously on the development, maintenance, and recurrence of EDs.
References
Horovitz, O., & Argyrides, M. (2023). Orthorexia and Orthorexia Nervosa: A Comprehensive Examination of Prevalence, Risk Factors, Diagnosis, and Treatment. Nutrients, 15(17), 3851. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu15173851
Shankland, R. (2020). Les troubles du comportement alimentaire. Prévention et accompagnement thérapeutique. Dunod.
Treasure, J., Duarte, T. A., & Schmidt, U. (2020). Eating disorders. Lancet (London, England), 395(10227), 899–911. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30059-3
Van der Linden, M., Danion, J-M., & Aniel, A. (2000). La psychopathologie : une approche cognitive et neuropsychologique. Solal Editeur: Marseille.
Van der Linden, M., & Ceschi, G. (2008). Principes et concepts généraux de la psychopathologie cognitive. In book: Traité de Psychopathologie Cognitive : Bases théoriques. Publisher: Solal.