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Background: Patients with Anorexia Nervosa (AN) show a moderate deficit in overall neuropsychological functioning. Since previous studies on memory performance mainly employed cross‐sectional designs, the present study aims to investigate changes in verbal memory following weight‐gain. Methods: Verbal memory was assessed with the Wechsler Memory Scale‐Revised (WMS‐R; 'logical memory'‐story‐recall‐subtest) and the California Verbal Learning Test‐II (CVLT‐II; 'verbal learning'). Included were 31 female patients with AN (18 restricting‐, 13 purging‐subtype; average disease duration: 5.1 years; average baseline BMI: 14.4 kg/m2) and 24 medication‐free normal‐weight healthy women adjusted for age at baseline (T0). In a post‐treatment assessment of approx. 6 weeks with weight increase (T1), 18 patients with AN and 20 healthy women were assessed again. Group differences in verbal memory (i.e., WMS‐R, CVLT‐II) were assessed for the baseline comparisons with a multivariate ANOVA and longitudinal data were analysed with repeated measures (RM) ANOVAs. Results: At baseline, patients with AN as compared to healthy women displayed deficits in logical memory. In the follow‐up assessment, patients with AN improved their logical memory significantly compared to healthy controls (p < 0.006). Furthermore, groups did not differ in verbal learning neither before nor after inpatient treatment. Conclusions: Enhanced logical memory in patients with AN following weight‐gain is probably due to the impaired memory as compared to healthy controls at T0. A survivorship bias could explain the improved memory performance in longitudinal data in contrast to cross‐sectional studies. Patients with AN with poorer memory performance before inpatient treatment are at higher risk to drop out and need support. Key points: Impaired logical memory before inpatient treatment improves in patients with anorexia nervosa (AN) during weight‐gain, while verbal learning seems to be intact before as well as after inpatient treatment as compared to healthy women.Drop‐out‐analyses revealed that patients with AN with poorer logical memory performance before inpatient treatment are at higher risk to drop out, and should receive further therapeutic support.Results imply, that therapeutic interventions using cognitive strategies may be overwhelming in severely ill patients with AN during early stages of the disease, while early cognitive interventions might be effective in a less sick, more motivated subgroup of patients with AN. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Anorexia nervosa (AN) is characterized by an overgeneralization of food/body-related autobiographical memories (AM). This is regarded as an emotion regulation strategy with adverse long-term effects implicated in disorder maintenance and treatment resistance. Therefore, we aimed to examine neural correlates of food/body-related AM-recall in AN. Methods: Twenty-nine female patients with AN and 30 medication-free age-sex-matched normal-weight healthy controls (HC) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging while recalling AMs in response to food/body-related and neutral cue words. To control for general knowledge retrieval, participants engaged in a semantic generation and riser detection task. Results: In comparison to HC, patients with AN generated fewer and less specific AMs in response to food/body-related words, but not for neutral cue words. Group comparisons revealed reduced activation in regions associated with self-referential processing and memory retrieval (precuneus and angular gyrus) during the retrieval of specific food/body-related AM in patients with AN. Brain connectivity in regions associated with memory functioning and executive control was reduced in patients with AN during the retrieval of specific food/body-related AM. Finally, resting-state functional connectivity analysis revealed no differences between groups, arguing against a general underlying disconnection of brain networks implicated in memory and emotional processing in AN. Conclusions: These results indicate impaired neural processing of food/body-related AM in AN, with a reduced involvement of regions involved in self-referential processing. Our findings are discussed as possible neuronal correlates of emotional avoidance in AN and provide new insights of AN-pathophysiology underscoring the importance of targeting dysfunctional emotion regulation strategies during treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the interplay between agency and therapeutic bond in predicting patient symptoms in outpatient psychotherapy. A total of N = 731 patients provided measurements of agency (Therapeutic Agency Inventory; TAI), therapeutic bond (bond subscale of Working Alliance Inventory-Short Form Revised [WAI-SR]), and symptoms (Symptom Checklist Short Form [SCL-K11]) every fifth session of long-term treatment for up to 60 sessions. When investigated in separate models, both more agency and a stronger therapeutic bond predicted symptom improvement. However, within-person changes and between-person differences in agency predicted symptom improvement over and above the effects of therapeutic bond. Multilevel response surface analysis was used to further investigate the interplay between agency and therapeutic bond. When both agency and therapeutic bond levels were high, symptoms improved the most. When agency and therapeutic bond ratings differed, symptom ratings were significantly lower when agency exceeded therapeutic bond levels than when therapeutic bond ratings exceeded agency. Findings suggest that both agency and therapeutic bond are important treatment factors, but outcome could be improved when a strong therapeutic bond is combined with an equally strong sense of agency that empowers patients to pursue changes in their lives. When a strong therapeutic bond is present, but the patient feels less agentic, therapists may want to foster agency to improve outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective First studies revealed overgeneral autobiographical memories in anorexia nervosa (AN) patients. The aim of the present study was to investigate frequency, generalization and valence of autobiographical memories in AN patients in response to eating disorder-related cue words. Method Autobiographical memory was examined in 21 AN patients and 21 healthy controls (HC) using a modified version of the Autobiographical Memory Test, incorporating body-related, food-related, perfectionism-related, depression-related and neutral cues. Results Anorexia nervosa patients recalled fewer and more general autobiographical memories compared with HC. For eating disorder-related cues as against neutral ones, AN patients compared with HC showed fewer memories for food-related and body-related cues, an elevated overgeneralization for food-related cues, while the valence of the retrieved memories was more negative in response to body-related cues. Discussion This study detects disorder-related autobiographical memory alterations in AN, which are intensified in response to symptom-related cues. The findings are discussed with regard to their maladaptive function in emotion regulation. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and Eating Disorders Association. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]