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.
Massimo Ballerini, Eleonora Rossi, Emanuele Cassioli, Livio Tarchi, Carlo Marchesi, Matteo Tonna, Giovanni Stanghellini, Valdo Ricca, Giovanni Castellini
Early Intervention in Psychiatry November 1, 2024 DOI: 10.1111/eip.13527 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Cross-sectional study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 223 |
| Population | People with anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and general-population controls |
| Topics | Philosophy of mind |
| Keywords | Anorexia nervosa Bulimia nervosa Clinical staging models Eating disorders |
| Citations | 4 |
| Key findings | Anomalous self-experiences in eating disorders are comparable to those in schizophrenia and influence eating-disorder symptoms through disturbances in embodiment and identity. |
Abstract
Psychotic-like anomalous self-experiences (ASEs) are core and early features of schizophrenia spectrum disorders, which have been recently also postulated to underlie embodiment disturbance in feeding and eating disorders (FEDs). The present study was aimed at investigating the interplay between ASEs and specific psychopathology in FED. Ninety persons with Anorexia Nervosa and 41 with Bulimia Nervosa were evaluated with the inventory of psychotic-like anomalous self-experiences (IPASE), identity and eating disorders (IDEA), body uneasiness test (BUT), and eating disorder examination questionnaire (EDE-Q). The same assessment was performed for 92 subjects recruited from the general population. Structural equation modelling was employed to test the role of embodiment/identity disorders in mediating the relationship between ASEs and ED psychopathology. Patients with FED displayed high scores on IPASE, comparable with people with schizophrenia spectrum disorders. A significant correlation was also demonstrated between IPASE, BUT and EDE-Q. All IPASE domains were strongly related to feeling extraneous from one's own body by IDEA. All IPASE domains demonstrated a high relationship with BUT Depersonalization scale. A strong correlation was also reported between total scores of IPASE and IDEA. The mediation model confirmed that ASEs impact on FED symptomatology through the mediation of both embodiment/identity disorders and body image. Anomalous interoceptive processes may represent the first step of a maladaptive process-impairing embodiment, selfhood, and identity in FED. Assessment of ASEs might be a valid tool to identify an early-shared vulnerability of severe disorders characterized by embodiment alterations.
Comparable studies
Other cross-sectional and survey studies on philosophy of mind, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Survey of entity encounter experiences occasioned by inhaled N,N-dimethyltryptamine: Phenomenology, interpretation, and enduring effects. People who had a memorable entity encounter after taking N,N-dimethyltryptamine | 2020 | Survey | n = 2,561 |
| Future directions in meditation research: Recommendations for expanding the field of contemplative science Meditators | 2018 | Cross-sectional online survey | n = 1,120 |
| The Phenomenology of Lucid Dreaming: An Online Survey Respondents to an online survey about lucid dreams | 2014 | Online survey | n = 684 |
| The neurophenomenology of early psychosis: An integrative empirical study. Ultra-high risk for psychosis patients, first episode psychosis patients, and healthy... | 2019 | Cross-sectional | n = 123 |
| Spontaneous Spiritual Awakenings: Phenomenology, Altered States, Individual Differences, and Well-Being People reporting their most powerful Spontaneous Spiritual or Kundalini Awakening | 2021 | Mixed within and between-participants self-report survey design | n = 152 |
Citations in the library
Cites 11
- Psychopathology of the bodily self and the brain: the case of schizophrenia. Psychopathology 2014
- The construct validity of the Inventory of Psychotic-Like Anomalous Self-Experiences (IPASE) as a measure of minimal self-disturbance: Preliminary data. Early Intervention in Psychiatry June 1, 2019
- Basic Self-Disturbances beyond Schizophrenia: Discrepancies and Affinities in Panic Disorder - An Empirical Clinical Study. Psychopathology 2017
- A comparison between auditory hallucinations, interpretation of voices, and formal thought disorder in dissociative identity disorder and schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Journal of Clinical Psychology September 1, 2023
- Sensed Presence, Attenuated Psychosis, and Transliminality: At the Threshold of Consciousness. Psychopathology 2023
and 6 more in the library