Do females with bulimia nervosa and eating disorder not otherwise specified (EDNOS) have selective memory biases?

Introduction: Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) for eating disorders is informed by the cognitive model of eating disorders. The basic cognitive model suggests that beliefs concerning weight and shape, food and eating are involved in the maintenance of both anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa (Hunt & Cooper, 2001). Fairburn et al (2003) suggest that when taking a transdiagnostic approach, the cognitive model can be extended to include eating disorder not otherwise specified (EDNOS). This study focuses on one aspect of the cognitive models related to information processing; namely that memory biases exist that preferentially select for information from th individual’s environment that is consistent with their weight, shape and food related beliefs (Hunt & Cooper, 2001). This study aims to extend the small amount of previous research conducted in this area (e.g. Hunt & Cooper, 2001); in an attempt to clarify the role that memory biases could play in the maintenance of eating disorders. The main hypothesis is that females with bulimia nervosa will recall more words related to weight, shape and food compared to neutral nouns, neutral body words and emotion words. On the basis of the transdiagnostic approach, it is also hypothesised that females with ENDOS will show a similar memory bias. Such a bias is not hypothesised for the control group. Method: The study design is experimental involving three independent groups; females with bulimia nervosa, females with EDNOS and a general population control female group. Females with bulimia nervosa and ENDOS were interviewed using the diagnostic items of the eating disorder examination (Fairburn & Cooper, 1987). As part of the research all participants listened to one hundred and thirty words. In line with the methodology utilised by Hunt and Cooper (2001) these were presented in a random fixed order as part of a self referential encoding task. Following a distraction task all participants were asked to recall as many words as possible. Results: The results of the study will be presented at the conference and the key theoretical and clinical implications will be highlighted.