Establishing Neurocognitive Inefficiencies in Youth with Atypical Anorexia Nervosa
Year: 2025
Type: other
Abstract: Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a severe psychiatric disorder characterized by restrictive eating, an intense fear of weight gain, and body image disturbance. Although AN has historically been conceptualized as a disorder of extreme low weight, there is growing recognition that approximately 50% of adolescents presenting with AN-type symptoms are at or above a normative weight. These individuals are diagnosed with atypical anorexia nervosa (AAN) and experience medical and psychological complications comparable to those with AN. Despite this illness severity, diagnostic standards classify AAN as a subthreshold disorder within Other Specified Feeding or Eating Disorder, and individuals with AAN are frequently excluded from etiological and treatment research on AN. As a result, empirical knowledge about this population remains limited. Executive functioning (EF) is considered a key risk and/or maintenance factor in AN. Prior research demonstrates that individuals with AN perform worse than healthy controls in the EF domains of inhibition and cognitive flexibility, and poorer EF performance has been associated with worse treatment outcomes. Neurobiological evidence suggests that malnutrition-related brain changes may exacerbate EF difficulties in AN. However, neuroimaging studies indicate that gray matter loss in adolescents with AAN may be less pronounced than in AN, raising important questions about whether EF functioning differs between these diagnostic groups. To date, EF has not been systematically examined in youth with AAN. The present cross-sectional study compares EF in adolescents with AN, AAN, and healthy controls using performance-based neuropsychological measures and youth self-reported everyday executive functioning. Multivariate analytic approaches will be used to evaluate group differences while accounting for shared variance across EF measures and general intellectual ability. Post hoc analyses will incorporate neuropsychological base-rate methods to contextualize low EF scores and profile-level patterns. The goal of the current project is to determine how EF performance in adolescents with AAN compares to that of adolescents with AN and healthy controls. Given that adjunctive treatments targeting EF inefficiencies are used in AN, this study aims to provide foundational evidence on EF performance in AAN and to inform whether such approaches may be appropriate for this underserved population.
Source: Open Science Framework
Language: English
Subfield: Clinical Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7117786772