Biomedical subjects

Brunna Tuschen-Caffier

Publications and source records attributed to Brunna Tuschen-Caffier.

10 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Affect regulation and food intake in bulimia nervosa: emotional responding to food cues after deprivation and subsequent eating.

Emotional responding to salient food cues and effects of food deprivation and consumption were investigated in 32 women with bulimia and 32 control women. One half of each group was food deprived before viewing unpleasant, neutral, pleasant, and food-related pictures. Then participants could eat from a buffet before viewing a parallel picture set. Women with bulimia showed a substantial potentiation of startle responses during viewing of food cues relative to control women. This startle potentiation was attenuated by food deprivation and augmented by increased food consumption. These data support the affective regulation model suggesting that food cues prompt negative affective states in women with bulimia, who are overwhelmed by fasting. The resulting deprivation increases the incentive value of food cues and may thus trigger binge eating.

Adult↗

PubMed2005

Cognitive inhibition in trichotillomania and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Cognitive inhibition was investigated in 21 trichotillomania (TTM), 21 obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and 26 healthy control (HC) participants using a block cued directed forgetting task. After encoding a word list, participants were instructed to intentionally FORGET these words and to REMEMBER another word list. Both lists included TTM-related and neutral (kitchen-related) words in equal proportions, with the TTM-related words generally of negative valence and the kitchen-related words generally of neutral valence for all participants. A superior free recall of REMEMBER versus FORGET words suggests intact cognitive inhibition. The performance of OCD participants indicated a specific deficit in inhibiting the retrieval of information with negative valence, which was not found in TTM. HC participants, in contrast to TTM and OCD participants, were rather inattentive to negative information. In conclusion, although attention was disproportionately directed towards negative information in both disorders, cognitive inhibition deficits appeared specific to OCD.

Adult↗

PubMed2005

Visuospatial abilities, memory, and executive functioning in trichotillomania and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Few studies have compared neuropsychological functioning in trichotillomania (TTM) and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). In OCD, most studies suggest abnormal visuospatial abilities, memory, and executive functioning. We compared 23 TTM, 21 OCD and 26 healthy control individuals on neuropsychological tasks assessing these abilities. Neither the TTM nor the OCD groups suffered from generalized neuropsychological deficits compared to the healthy control group. TTM participants showed increased perseveration on the Object Alternation Task suggesting difficulties with response flexibility. OCD participants showed impaired ability to learn from feedback on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test. Other executive functions, as well as memory and visuospatial abilities were unimpaired in TTM and OCD. Our data suggest that TTM and OCD are characterized by different patterns of neuropsychological dysfunction.

Adult↗

PubMed2004

Sensitivity to change of scales assessing symptoms of bulimia nervosa.

Measures employed in a therapy study with a pre-post design must be sensitive to the detection of treatment-related changes. In the present study, the treatment sensitivity of 12 internationally established scales that assess bulimia-relevant aspects of eating and body concern is analyzed. The scales can be sorted along three dimensions (Disturbed Eating, Restrictive Eating Behaviors and Body Dissatisfaction). Measures of the same dimension were compared in a sample of 45 women with the diagnosis of bulimia nervosa. Patients completed the scales before and 6 weeks after the end of cognitive-behavioral therapy. Significant differences between scales with respect to treatment sensitivity occurred in all three dimensions. Post hoc analysis revealed that scales are particularly sensitive to change if they include disorder-relevant aspects beyond the main dimension of a scale. Implications of the findings for meta-analytical treatment research, for designing effectiveness studies, and for future research on the treatment sensitivity of outcome measures are discussed.

Adult↗

PubMed2004

Body image interventions in cognitive-behavioural therapy of binge-eating disorder: a component analysis.

The present study sought to investigate effects of body exposure in the treatment of binge-eating disorder (BED). Cognitive-behavioural therapy with a body exposure component (CBT-E) was compared with CBT with a cognitive restructuring component focused on body image (CBT-C). Twenty-eight patients diagnosed with BED were randomly assigned to CBT-E or CBT-C, both delivered in a group format. Negative automatic thoughts about one's body, dysfunctional assumptions about shape and weight, and body dissatisfaction were assessed using experimental thought-sampling techniques, a clinical interview (Eating Disorder Examination), and self-report questionnaires. At posttreatment and at 4-month follow-up, CBT-E and CBT-C were equally effective in improving body image disturbance on all indicators assessed. Both CBT-E and CBT-C produced substantial and stable improvements in the specific and general eating disorder psychopathology. Results suggest that both treatment components are equally effective in the treatment of BED.

Adult↗

PubMed2004

Energy and macronutrient intake in bulimia nervosa.

Energy deprivation and malnutrition are often thought to be key factors in the maintenance of bulimia nervosa (BN). Our review shows that it is unclear how much energy is actually available to BN patients' metabolism because the contribution of food consumed during binge eating is generally neglected. Also, there is little evidence for another key hypothesis that binge-eating episodes are triggered by carbohydrate craving. This study examined energy consumption and macronutrient composition of meals and binge-eating episodes in food diaries. Forty female BN patients, 40 female panic disorder (PD) patients, and 40 healthy women recorded their food intake while in their natural environment during two consecutive days. We did not find the expected evidence for chronic energy deprivation and malnutrition in BN patients. Also, there was no evidence that carbohydrate craving drives binge eating. The implications for models of BN and for treatments targeting eating behavior are discussed.

Adult↗

PubMed2002

Effects of prolonged and repeated body image exposure in binge-eating disorder.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of the present study was to investigate psychological mechanisms associated with prolonged and repeated body image exposure. METHOD: In an experimental design, 30 female volunteers diagnosed with binge-eating disorder (BED) (DSM-IV) and 30 non-eating-disordered controls (NC) were exposed to their physical appearance in a mirror. The confrontation procedure was guided by a standardized interview manual and took place on two separate days. Self-reported mood, appearance self-esteem, and frequency of negative cognitions were assessed repeatedly throughout the experiment. RESULTS: During body image exposure sessions, binge-eating-disordered individuals showed significantly lower mood than controls while appearance self-esteem was diminished in both groups. During the second body image exposure session, higher levels of mood and appearance self-esteem were observed in both groups, and negative cognitions occurred less frequently. CONCLUSION: Results are discussed with regard to the therapeutic use of body image exposure.

Adult↗

PubMed2002

Interpretive biases for ambiguous information in body dysmorphic disorder.

Anxiety-disordered patients and individuals with high trait anxiety tend to interpret ambiguous information as threatening. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether interpretive biases would also occur in body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), which is characterized by a preoccupation with imagined defects in one's appearance. We tested whether BDD participants, compared with obsessive-compulsive disorder participants and healthy controls, would choose threatening interpretations for ambiguous body-related, ambiguous social, and general scenarios. As we hypothesized, BDD participants exhibited a negative interpretive bias for body-related scenarios and for social scenarios, whereas the other groups did not. Moreover, both clinical groups exhibited a negative interpretive bias for general scenarios.

Journal Article↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Emotion recognition deficits in body dysmorphic disorder.

Patients with Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD) are characterized by excessive concerns about imagined defects in their appearance, most commonly, facial features. In this study, we investigated (1) the ability to identify facial expressions of emotion, and (2) to discriminate single facial features in BDD patients, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) patients, and in healthy control participants. Specifically, their ability for general facial feature discrimination was assessed using the Short Form of the Benton Facial Recognition Test (Benton AL, Hamsher KdeS, Varney NR, Spreen O. Contributions to neuropsychological assessment: a clinical manual. New York: Oxford University Press; 1983). However, findings of the BFRT indicate no differences among the groups. Moreover, participants were presented with facial photographs from the Ekman and Friesen (Ekman P, Friesen W. Unmasking the face: a guide to recognizing emotions from facial cues. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall; 1975 and Ekman P, Friesen W. Pictures of facial affect. Palo Alto: Consulting Psychologists Press, 1976) series and were asked to identify the corresponding emotion. The BDD group was less accurate than the control group, but not the OCD group, in identifying facial expressions of emotion. Relative to the control and OCD groups, the BDD group more often misidentified emotional expressions as angry. In contrast to the findings of Sprengelmeyer et al. [Proc. Royal Soc. London Series B: Biol. Sci. 264 (1997),1767], OCD patients did not show a disgust recognition deficit. Poor insight and ideas of reference, common in BDD, might partly result from an emotion recognition bias for angry expressions. Perceiving others as angry and rejecting might reinforce concerns about one's personal ugliness and social desirability.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

[Has the translation process impact on the psychometric structure of a questionnaire?].

Little is known about the impact of item translation on the psychometric structure of questionnaires. The analysis of different translation versions within the same language provides an opportunity to address this question. Therefore, in the present study, two of the six available German translations of Eating Disorder Inventory (EDI) were compared with respect to their psychometric structure. A total of 449 female students completed the short forms of the EDI (consisting of the subscales drive for thinness, bulimia and body dissatisfaction). Structural equation modeling revealed that the item contents in both translations had been interpreted equivalently by the participants. In addition, the structural relations among the factors were equivalent across both versions. Whereas invariance of item-pair reliability was not tenable, the distribution of raw scores of the scales was similar. All in all, the findings suggest a very large degree of similarity in the psychometric structure of the alternative translations of the EDI versions. The results are discussed with respect to the lack of standards for the translation of questionnaires.

Adolescent↗