Cognitive processing of emotions in anorexia nervosa

Objective: This study attempts to explore the cognitive processing of emotions in anorexia nervosa (AN), based on the study of emotions felt and the assessment of meta-emotional abilities.

Method: Eighty patients with AN and a control group of 80 healthy female participants were screened for anxiety, depression and alexithymia and completed an experimental task designed to analyse the emotional experience and meta-emotional abilities.

Results: Despite presenting higher levels of alexithymia, participants with AN demonstrated they were able to imagine emotions in hypothetical situations and to identify and label them. The group of patients with AN revealed feeling more intense and internally based negative emotions in comparison with the control group, but this emotional pattern tends to occur in situations associated with food and weight.

Conclusions: Findings on meta-emotional abilities suggested no global deficit in emotional processing, but rather, specific sensitivities pertaining to situations relevant to AN.