Objective: The aim of this study was to compare patients admitted to a specialized inpatient program for anorexia nervosa (AN) with and without a fear of weight gain in terms of specific eating disorder symptoms, general psychopathology, and treatment outcome.
Method: Measures of specific and general psychopathology were administered at admission to and discharge from the inpatient program. Of the 138 participants, 81% (n = 112) were categorized as having clinical levels of "fear of weight gain" and 19% (n = 26) were categorized as having subclinical levels of this feature.
Results: The subclinical-level group had lower scores on measures of eating disorder psychopathology, depression, general psychiatric disturbance, and obsessive-compulsive symptomatology, but higher self-esteem scores. There were no differences found in terms of age of onset of AN, duration of illness, AN subtype, body mass index, or treatment outcome.
Discussion: The current findings provide evidence that underweight patients who deny a fear of weight gain are less disturbed in terms of both eating disorder pathology and general psychopathology.
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