Abstract The hypothesis that patients with anorexia nervosa exaggerate the perceived size of food... more Abstract The hypothesis that patients with anorexia nervosa exaggerate the perceived size of food was tested. Video recordings of five items of food and four neutral objects of a similar size were made such that the size of each object increased steadily from half to twice its normal size.
Bulimia nervosa and related syndromes are common, and occur in up to 5% of women who attend gener... more Bulimia nervosa and related syndromes are common, and occur in up to 5% of women who attend general practitioners. Young women in First World countries, particularly those who "diet", are at increased risk. Behaviours, such as binge eating and induced vomiting, are typically kept well hidden. Only a minority of those with these disorders present for treatment. General practitioners play a key role in primary and secondary prevention. Effective treatments include psychotherapies that focus on the patient's attitudes and relationships, not just the binge eating behaviour. About 50% of patients make a complete recovery, but the long term outcome is unknown.
Abstract This report describes an adaptation of the Stroop Effect for measuring psychopathology. ... more Abstract This report describes an adaptation of the Stroop Effect for measuring psychopathology. The Stroop Effect has been adapted to provide a quantitative measure of concerns relating to food and shape in patients undergoing treatment for anorexia nervosa and bulimia. The measure takes advantage of the disrupting effect of psychopathology on color naming of food and shape words. In comparison to agematched controls, anorexic and bulimic patients had significantly retarded colornaming of food words. There was a trend, ...
Abstract A measure has been developed which assesses a broad range of attitudes which women hold ... more Abstract A measure has been developed which assesses a broad range of attitudes which women hold towards their bodies. The Ben-Tovim Walker Body Attitudes Questionnaire (BAQ) is a 44-item self-report questionnaire whose subscales encompass six distinct aspects of body experience (feelings of overall fatness, self-disparagement, strength, salience of weight, feelings of attractiveness and consciousness of lower body fat). The development of the BAQ involved administering increasingly refined versions to a wide ...
The influence of age and weight on the body-related attitudes of a large sample of South Australi... more The influence of age and weight on the body-related attitudes of a large sample of South Australian women were measured by the Ben-Tovim-Walker Body Attitudes Questionnaire (BAQ). Attitudes were found not to vary substantially with age, and only the Feeling Fat, Body Disparagement and Lower Body Fatness sub-scales of the BAQ were correlated with BMI. The effect of BMI on attitudes was independent of age. Obese subjects felt significantly less attractive than those with BMIs only slightly above average. However, they did not disparage their bodies more than did less overweight women. Body attitudes appear to be substantially independent of the current physical body.
The Ben-Tovim Walker Body Attitudes Questionnaire (BAQ) is a psychometrically sound self-report i... more The Ben-Tovim Walker Body Attitudes Questionnaire (BAQ) is a psychometrically sound self-report instrument for assessing women's attitudes towards their own bodies. The BAQ responses of a large sample of patients with eating disorders (ED) diagnosed in accordance with DSM-III-R criteria were compared with those from a normative population and from diverse groups of psychiatrically and physically ill patients. The ED group was distinct, and showed extreme responses in the area of weight and shape concerns. But a better discrimination between the ED and other populations was achieved using subscales that related to 'body disparagement' (an intense loathing of the body) and 'attractiveness', rather than to weight and shape concerns. ED patients may have a more pervasive disturbance in body-related attitudes than is currently widely accepted. Patients with anorexia and bulimia nervosa showed very similar attitudes despite the symptomatic differences between the groups.
The interrater reliability of the modified version of the widely used Morgan-Russell Assessment S... more The interrater reliability of the modified version of the widely used Morgan-Russell Assessment Schedule was assessed. Sixty-six female patients presenting for treatment for the first time in a general hospital and a community health center were assessed by a treating clinician and a researcher during sequential interviews. Two extra items were added to the Schedule to allow for the assessment of bulimic behaviors. Ratings were analyzed using the Cohen's weighted kappa. Poor to very poor levels of agreement were found between rater pairs assessing the 66 separate patients. The necessity for a specific, standardized format in using the Morgan-Russell Schedule is discussed. In its current, unstandardized format the Schedule may not be suitable for comparing outcome in eating disorders across different centers.
The body-related attitudes of female current, ex, and never-smokers were compared using a new que... more The body-related attitudes of female current, ex, and never-smokers were compared using a new questionnaire that assesses a wide range of attitudes towards the body. In a population survey, current smokers felt less attractive than those women who had never smoked, but they did not experience themselves as being less strong and fit than the non-smokers. There were no significant inter-relationships of smoking status, attitudes and body weight. The implications of these observations for anti-smoking campaigns are briefly discussed.
Anorexia nervosa is a serious psychiatric illness with a high morbidity and a significant lifetim... more Anorexia nervosa is a serious psychiatric illness with a high morbidity and a significant lifetime mortality. Recurring themes in such patients centre on issues of self-worth and control. Treatment is difficult and prolonged, and may require hospitalisation. Therapy focuses on altering the misperceptions that patients have of themselves, both psychologically and physically. A multi-disciplinary team based in a specialised unit provides the treatment of choice, but if this is not available, a consistent, supportive relationship with an individual therapist familiar with the condition will be beneficial. Successful outcome should be based not simply on body weight but also on the resolution of anorexic thinking.
Abstract The hypothesis that patients with anorexia nervosa exaggerate the perceived size of food... more Abstract The hypothesis that patients with anorexia nervosa exaggerate the perceived size of food was tested. Video recordings of five items of food and four neutral objects of a similar size were made such that the size of each object increased steadily from half to twice its normal size.
Bulimia nervosa and related syndromes are common, and occur in up to 5% of women who attend gener... more Bulimia nervosa and related syndromes are common, and occur in up to 5% of women who attend general practitioners. Young women in First World countries, particularly those who "diet", are at increased risk. Behaviours, such as binge eating and induced vomiting, are typically kept well hidden. Only a minority of those with these disorders present for treatment. General practitioners play a key role in primary and secondary prevention. Effective treatments include psychotherapies that focus on the patient's attitudes and relationships, not just the binge eating behaviour. About 50% of patients make a complete recovery, but the long term outcome is unknown.
Abstract This report describes an adaptation of the Stroop Effect for measuring psychopathology. ... more Abstract This report describes an adaptation of the Stroop Effect for measuring psychopathology. The Stroop Effect has been adapted to provide a quantitative measure of concerns relating to food and shape in patients undergoing treatment for anorexia nervosa and bulimia. The measure takes advantage of the disrupting effect of psychopathology on color naming of food and shape words. In comparison to agematched controls, anorexic and bulimic patients had significantly retarded colornaming of food words. There was a trend, ...
Abstract A measure has been developed which assesses a broad range of attitudes which women hold ... more Abstract A measure has been developed which assesses a broad range of attitudes which women hold towards their bodies. The Ben-Tovim Walker Body Attitudes Questionnaire (BAQ) is a 44-item self-report questionnaire whose subscales encompass six distinct aspects of body experience (feelings of overall fatness, self-disparagement, strength, salience of weight, feelings of attractiveness and consciousness of lower body fat). The development of the BAQ involved administering increasingly refined versions to a wide ...
The influence of age and weight on the body-related attitudes of a large sample of South Australi... more The influence of age and weight on the body-related attitudes of a large sample of South Australian women were measured by the Ben-Tovim-Walker Body Attitudes Questionnaire (BAQ). Attitudes were found not to vary substantially with age, and only the Feeling Fat, Body Disparagement and Lower Body Fatness sub-scales of the BAQ were correlated with BMI. The effect of BMI on attitudes was independent of age. Obese subjects felt significantly less attractive than those with BMIs only slightly above average. However, they did not disparage their bodies more than did less overweight women. Body attitudes appear to be substantially independent of the current physical body.
The Ben-Tovim Walker Body Attitudes Questionnaire (BAQ) is a psychometrically sound self-report i... more The Ben-Tovim Walker Body Attitudes Questionnaire (BAQ) is a psychometrically sound self-report instrument for assessing women's attitudes towards their own bodies. The BAQ responses of a large sample of patients with eating disorders (ED) diagnosed in accordance with DSM-III-R criteria were compared with those from a normative population and from diverse groups of psychiatrically and physically ill patients. The ED group was distinct, and showed extreme responses in the area of weight and shape concerns. But a better discrimination between the ED and other populations was achieved using subscales that related to 'body disparagement' (an intense loathing of the body) and 'attractiveness', rather than to weight and shape concerns. ED patients may have a more pervasive disturbance in body-related attitudes than is currently widely accepted. Patients with anorexia and bulimia nervosa showed very similar attitudes despite the symptomatic differences between the groups.
The interrater reliability of the modified version of the widely used Morgan-Russell Assessment S... more The interrater reliability of the modified version of the widely used Morgan-Russell Assessment Schedule was assessed. Sixty-six female patients presenting for treatment for the first time in a general hospital and a community health center were assessed by a treating clinician and a researcher during sequential interviews. Two extra items were added to the Schedule to allow for the assessment of bulimic behaviors. Ratings were analyzed using the Cohen's weighted kappa. Poor to very poor levels of agreement were found between rater pairs assessing the 66 separate patients. The necessity for a specific, standardized format in using the Morgan-Russell Schedule is discussed. In its current, unstandardized format the Schedule may not be suitable for comparing outcome in eating disorders across different centers.
The body-related attitudes of female current, ex, and never-smokers were compared using a new que... more The body-related attitudes of female current, ex, and never-smokers were compared using a new questionnaire that assesses a wide range of attitudes towards the body. In a population survey, current smokers felt less attractive than those women who had never smoked, but they did not experience themselves as being less strong and fit than the non-smokers. There were no significant inter-relationships of smoking status, attitudes and body weight. The implications of these observations for anti-smoking campaigns are briefly discussed.
Anorexia nervosa is a serious psychiatric illness with a high morbidity and a significant lifetim... more Anorexia nervosa is a serious psychiatric illness with a high morbidity and a significant lifetime mortality. Recurring themes in such patients centre on issues of self-worth and control. Treatment is difficult and prolonged, and may require hospitalisation. Therapy focuses on altering the misperceptions that patients have of themselves, both psychologically and physically. A multi-disciplinary team based in a specialised unit provides the treatment of choice, but if this is not available, a consistent, supportive relationship with an individual therapist familiar with the condition will be beneficial. Successful outcome should be based not simply on body weight but also on the resolution of anorexic thinking.
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