Patients With Eating Disorders and Their Siblings, Research Paper Example

Abstract

The paper provides a brief summary of the research article. The article investigated body images of patients with anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa and their siblings. The paper summarizes the research background and its purpose. The methods, procedure, and results are summarized. The paper summarizes the difficulties and research limitations.

Patients with Eating Disorders and Their Siblings

Whether siblings of patients with eating disorders develop similar eating complications has long been neglected by scholars. That despite genetic dispositions and shared environments patients with eating disorders and their siblings develop different personalities raised the significance of the problem (Benninghoven, Tetsch&Jantschek, 2008). In their article, Benninghoven, Tetsch and Jantschek (2008) sought to investigate body images of patients with bulimia nervosa or anorexia and to compare them to the body images of their brothers and sisters. Given that dissatisfaction with one’s own body is the direct prerequisite for the development of eating disorders, the researchers decided to analyze the self-ideal discrepancy in patients with eating disorders and their siblings (Benninghoven, Tetsch&Jantschek, 2008). The study involved 30 patients, of whom 18 had anorexia nervosa and 12 had beendiagnosed of bulimia nervosa (Benninghoven, Tetsch&Jantschek, 2008). All participants were female, and all assessments took place during the first 2 weeks of their treatment (Benninghoven, Tetsch&Jantschek, 2008). 25 dyads of patients with sisters and 13 dyads of patients with brothers were created (Benninghoven, Tetsch&Jantschek, 2008). The somatromorphix computer matrix was used, to create image bodies of the participants and their siblings (Benninghoven, Tetsch&Jantschek, 2008). Perceptual body size distortion was computed, and Structured Clinical Interviews with all patients and control subjects were performed (Benninghoven, Tetsch&Jantschek, 2008). The researchers found out that self-ideal discrepancy was much higher in bulimia nervosa patients than that in patients with anorexia, whereas their healthy siblings did not display any signs of body disturbance (Benninghoven, Tetsch&Jantschek, 2008). Unfortunately, the sample size of the study was too small to detect statistically significant results,and a larger sample could be desirable to make sound comparisons between the basic and control group (Benninghoven, Tetsch&Jantschek, 2008).

References

Benninghoven, D., Tetsch, N. &Jantschek, G. (2008). Patients with eating disorders and their siblings: An investigation of body image perceptions. European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 17, 118-126.