Readiness to recover in anorexia nervosa: what does it depend on in female inpatients?

✍ Scribed by Nola Rushford

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2006
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 99 KB
• Volume: 14
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1072-4133
• DOI: 10.1002/erv.732

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Anorexia nervosa (AN) is difficult to treat, especially when the patient's condition is sufficiently severe to require an inpatient admission. An impediment to treatment is the disinclination of the patient to recover, who often prefers the distress of AN over weight gain. An inpatient‐rated visual analogue scale depicting readiness to recover (RR) was studied to determine (a) its concurrent prediction by AN diagnostic criteria and risk‐related factors and (b) its relationships to an adapted stages of change questionnaire (a‐SCQ) and comparison of their predictions of drive for thinness (EDI‐DT) at discharge. For (a), fear of gaining weight, state anger and ineffectiveness undermined RR, while higher BMI and the capacity to see low weight as a health risk supported it. For (b), RR was related to a‐SCQ, but only RR predicted discharge EDI‐DT. The findings reinforce the conceptual complexity of readiness to recover and indicate practical interventions in preparing sufferers of AN for recovery in an inpatient setting. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and Eating Disorders Association.