Differences in Impulsivity between Females Diagnosed with Eating Disorders and Healthy Subjects

Abstract

Objectives: This cross-sectional study investigates the tendencies toward impulsivity and self-control over the entire spectrum of the different eating disorders in comparison to healthy and recovered subjects. Methods: The study included 116 women, aged 18-35. Participants filled seven self-report questionnaires to assess eating disorders features and tendencies toward impulsivity and self-control and two computerized tasks (Go/No Go and Cognitive Delay Discounting) to examine motoric impulsivity. Results: There was a hierarchy of occurrence of impulsivity in the different categories of eating disorders. Cognitive impulsivity as well as motor impulsivity and global score of impulsivity were most prominent in the anorexia nervosa binging type. This hierarchy was correlated with the eating disorders symptoms. The lowest score in motor impulsivity was observed among restrictive patients with anorexia and the highest among patients with binging-purging anorexia, while all other groups were in between. Those with binging-purging anorexia demonstrated significantly different behavior in short term delays: they were less willing to delay gratification in comparison to other participants who demonstrated preference for the higher delayed reward. The impulse regulation and the ineffectiveness scores of both anorextic groups were higher in comparison to the other groups. These two variables were highly correlated with attentional impulsiveness. Conclusion: These findings suggest that binging restricting behaviors may be seen as lying on opposite ends of a spectrum of impulsive behaviors. Individuals with AN-BP appear to have more in common with BN individuals as they share the tendency to display greater response Disinhibition and produce more impulsive behaviors. Since at this stage only a small sample size was analyzed these results are considered preliminary.