Psychotic-like anomalous self-experiences in feeding and eating disorders: Their role in eating psychopathology through the mediation of body uneasiness and embodiment and identity disorders.
Early Intervention in Psychiatry November 1, 2024 Massimo Ballerini, Eleonora Rossi, Emanuele Cassioli et al. 4 citations
People with anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa report anomalous self-experiences (ASEs) at levels comparable to those seen in schizophrenia. In a study of 90 individuals with anorexia, 41 with bulimia, and 92 general-population controls, ASEs were strongly correlated with feeling extraneous from one's own body, body uneasiness, and eating-disorder symptoms. Statistical modeling showed that ASEs influence eating-disorder symptoms indirectly, through disturbances in embodiment, identity, and body image. The findings suggest that anomalous interoceptive processes may initiate a maladaptive cascade that impairs embodiment and selfhood in feeding and eating disorders, and that assessing ASEs could help identify an early shared vulnerability across severe disorders involving altered embodiment.