Eating Disorders - Articles

1. Older Women, Too, Struggle With a Dangerous Secret

This article talks about older women who suffer or have suffered from either bulimia or anorexia nervosa. According to Lori Varecka, she was able to hide her eating disorder from her family for more than two decades. Another woman said that her husband just thought she had  "funny eating habits."  When hearing a word such as bulimia, we have a tendency to imagine a skin-and-bones teenager. However, it seems like that's just a pure illusion. This dangerous disorder has started to occur more frequently in our every day lives. Some of the similarities between teenagers and older women suffering from bulimia are: loneliness, insecurity and perfectionism. On the contrary, the main difference is considered to be the etiology, in other the words the reason why it occurred. Moreover, according to one particular study more than 20% of women suffering from anorexia died.

(http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/06/health/older-women-too-struggle-with-a-dangerous-secret.html) 

2. Study Links Bulimia to Chemical Malfunction in the Brain

A new study mentioned in this article suggests that bulimia is not only caused by mental problems, but also by brain's inability to regulate serotonin. To be more specific, women in the study who recovered from bulimia and were deprived from trytophan (amino acid found in foods whose function is to make serotonin) were more affected psychologically than the women who were not deprived from trytophan. In the second study, 10 recovered bulimics and 12 normal women were asked to drink a fruit drink. There were two control groups: some drinks contained trytophan and the rest did not. The results showed that lowered brain serotonin function that is caused by lower levels of trytophan in human body can trigger some features of bulimia nervosa.

http://www.nytimes.com/1999/02/16/health/study-links-bulimia-to-chemical-malfunction-in-the-brain.html 

3. VITAL SIGNS: BEHAVIOR; Trouble for Women in the Mess Hall

This article focused on the women in the Army and their eating disorder problems. The results of the recent study showed that 8% of the women who were in active duty in the Army suffered either from anorexia or bulimia. Even though this percentage is not extremely high, it is still higher than for the women in general. Therefore, a larger emphasis should be put on this issue. The study conducted by Dr. Tamara D. Lauder was studying 423 enlisted women at Fort Lewis. The researcher and her team were observing these women for about a year. 142 women appeared to have some clinical feature of eating disorders. According to the results, 33 women actually suffered from eating disorders. Some of them even admitted that they were binging and purging. To conclude, the researchers suggested that male environment full of physical tests might have a negative impact on women's mental health.

http://www.nytimes.com/2000/01/18/health/vital-signs-behavior-trouble-for-women-in-the-mess-hall.html

Bulimia Nervosa: Treatments

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

a) description: CBT can be described as a short-term psycho-therapeutic treatment. The goal of this therapy is to teach patients to deal or cope with things that negatively affect their behavior and life. In order to do this, a therapist helps him to identify the problematic beliefs.

b) when it is likely to be used:

The Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is commonly used to treat Bulimia Nervosa. Even its efficacy is pretty high, it's still has some significant limitations. There is a still a large number of patients for whom CBT is ineffective.

c) when it is not likely to be used:

Bulimia Nervosa such as any other disorder has several stages. In high stages when a patient starves himself to death, hospitalization which is a last resort is used instead of CBT.

Interpersonal Therapy (IPT)

a) description: IPT is a time-limited treatment lasting usually from 12-16 weeks. The therapist is constantly working with a patient. First, he/she identifies patient's problem and then he tries to help him. The therapy has three different stages. Thanks to the therapy, patients learn new interpersonal skills.Once again, the goal is to help a patient identify his/her problems. The therapy does not directly focus on bulimic symptoms.

b) when it is likely to be used:

It's effective for clients who are stuck in Bulimia Nervosa due to their problematic relationships.

c) when it is not likely to be used: Similarly as with CBT, a patient who is in a critical stage is most likely to be hospitalized. Therefore, Interpersonal Therapy would be, in this case,  inappropriate.

Antidepressants 

a) description: Their main function is to regulate brain chemicals that affect mood. They not only keep emotions stable, but they also have an ability to reduce frequency of binging and purging. The most common antidepressants that are used for curing bulimia are Fluoxetine (Prozac) functioning as selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitor and different kinds of tricyclics.

b) when it is likely to be used:

They are most effective when they are used with several therapies such as CBT or IPT. According to statistics, antidepressants help to reduce binging and purging in up to 75% patients.

c) when it is not likely to be used:

Children suffering from bulimia nervosa are not allowed to used antidepressants mentioned above as they may be harmful.

Hospitalization

a) description: A patient who goes to the hospital  for treatment requiring at least one overnight stay.

b) when it is likely to be used:

Hospitalization is used when: the body fat of a patient is lower than 10%, systolic pressure is lower than 90, heart rate is lower than 50 per minute daytime and 45 per minute nighttime and lastly when weight is smaller than 75% of the estimated body weight. It's considered to be the last resort!

c) when it is not likely to be used:

Hospitalization is not recommended when the above criteria are not met.

Major Depressive Disorders: Treatments

ELECTROCONVULSIVE THERAPY (ECT)

Description: ECT is considered to be a short-term treatment that is given to patients suffering from major depressions. This therapy works by using electric currents that are passed through the brain causing a brief seizure.This seizure initiates changes in brain chemistry that help reduce symptoms. ECT therapy is used when medications such as antidepressants fail to cure the depression.

When it should be used: Doctors may use ECT therapy when dealing with severe depressions might lead to eating disorders and desires to commit suicide. It also helps to cure catomia (lack of movement), aggressive behavior of people with dementia as well as problems with hyperactivity and euphoria. 

Risks: Some of the side effects of ECT include confusion that might occur after the treatment, especially when curing older adults. Even though ECT is quite safe, physical side effects such as vomiting, headache, jaw pain or muscle might occurs as well. ECT usually increases high-blood pressure and therefore, might lead to some heart problems.

Efficacy: According to the studies and research that was done on ECT, this therapy is very efficient. To be more specific, 41% more effective than placebo and 20% more effective than antidepressant that often used to treat depressions. Doctors usually use ECT when other treatments such as medication failed.

ANTIDEPRESSANT MEDICATION 

Description (in general): antidepressants are drugs that help stimulate the activity and increase availability of neurotransmitters

1. Tricyclic antidepressant (TCas)

Even though Tricyclic antidepressant are effective, they are often harmful and have more side effects than other types of drugs used for curing depression. Therefore, antidepressant are not used very often anymore and have been replaced by other antidepressants. Their main function is to prevent serotonin and norepinephrine from absorbing, so they are more available in the brain. Increases sweating, blurred vision, dry mouth and drowsiness are just a few of many possible side effects TCas have on patients.

2. Monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs)

In order to ease depression, these antidepressants are able to change the levels of neurotransmitters such as serotonin and dopamine. Part of this treatment is to follow a certain diet. The reason for is that it was found types of food interact with MAOIs while some do not. Therefore, a patient must be careful about what he is eating. Side effects of MAOIs include headaches, low blood pressure, weights gain, dry mouth or insomnia.

Efficacy: It was found that antidepressants do not work for everyone. Interestingly enough, antidepressants have usually a little effect on patients with mild depressions, but at the same time, are very effective when curing severe depressions.

PREFRONTAL LOBOTOMY (leucotomy)

Description: Prefrontal lobotomy can be described as a surgical procedure that consists of cutting nerve pathways found in a lobe from those in other areas of the brain. It is also important to say that lobotomy is a quite simple and very economic way for curing patients, that is why it had been used a lot in the past.

When it should be used: This type of  a treatment has been used to cure many mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, depression and bipolar disorder.

Risks: Since leucotomy had caused many negative side effects such as apathy, decreased ability to concentrate as well as lack of initiative, it is no longer used on regular basis. Other treatments including antidepressants and ECT replaced this older method of curing mental disorders.

Efficacy: Prefrontal lobotomy surgery has a pretty low effectiveness comparing to ECT. Usually only one third of patients undergoing this treatment are cured.

 

COGNITIVE BEHAVIORAL THERAPY (CBT)

Description: CBT is a common way to treat mental problems such as depression. This therapy involves carefully structured sessions, where a person suffering from depression has a chance to talk to a psychiatrist who tries to find a way to help and cure patient's mental problems. The main element of these sessions is to make the patient aware of inaccurate or negative thinking.

When it should be used: There are several issues such as depression, sexual disorders Schizophrenia that can be cured just by introducing emotional challenges. That's when CBT may be very efficient. Moreover, CBT not only learns patient how to cope with stress as well as traumatized life events, but also it helps to reduce symptoms of depression.

Risks: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy fortunately does not have any side effects, which makes it a very safe treatment comparing to Electronegative therapy or antidepressants. However, a patient who is using this type of a treatment might have to reveal and explain several awkward, painful  and often very personal events that he/she would rather avoid.

Efficacy: According to several studies, cognitive behavioral therapy is as effective and antidepressants when dealing with severe depressions. Approximately 60% of participants were cure by having cognitive behavioral therapy.

Why can ethics in psychology be a controversial topic?

Experiments that had been conducted in the last century were often very cruel and had a negative impact on a life of a person or an animal. Harming of people must have stopped and ethics have become a very important element of every psychological study. Nowadays, every experimenter or psychologist, who wants to conduct an experiment must make sure that his/her experiment is ethical. By doing so, we are trying to avoid harming both humans and animals.
Even though conducting of unethical and cruel experiments such as the "Little Albert Experiment" was not a right thing to do, these studies did help to gain knowledge now often used in psychology. On one hand, it was very immoral from J. B. Watson to conduct an experiment on a little orphan who wasn't able to neither agree nor disagree with a participation. What made the whole experiment even more inhuman was that Albert's behavior had completely changed. After the experiment this little boy feared everything that was fluffy and white. On the other hand, Watson's experiment demonstrated the classical conditioning on humans, which was a big contribution to psychology since before classical conditioning was demonstrated just on animals in Pavlov's Dogs Experiment.
Other horrible experiments that have brought many questions were "Monkey Drug Trials." It is well known that  the animal experimentation such as "Monkey Drug Trials" can be incredibly helpful in understanding humans and developing life saving drugs. Psychologists would never use real people for such a dangerous experiment so they decided to demonstrate the effects of drugs on defenseless animals. Monkeys in the experiment were trained to inject themselves with substances such as morphine, alcohol or cocaine. They were arguing that animals do not feel pain. On the contrary, there is a plenty of people who strongly disagree with animal experimentation which has created a controversial topic. People who are against using animals in experiments claim that if animals do not feel pain, then they are probably a lot different than humans. Therefore, it is pretty useless to conduct experiments on animals if they are not like us. Another important fact they often mention is that animals do feel pain and if someone decides to conduct an experiment like "Monkey Drug Trials" then they certainly hurt those animals.Sometimes we should rather ask ourselves if we should not if we can.

Sigmund Freud

The Interpretation of Dreams (1899-1990) 

Throughout the book "The Interpretation of Dreams" written by The "father" of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, the new theory of the psychology of dreams is analyzed. Freud uses his own dreams as examples for proving the theory. In his book, he tries to show a significant distinction between the "manifest" (surface-level) dream content and the "latent (unconscious) dream thoughts." To be more specific, Freud claims that all dreams we have represent the fulfillment of our wishes and that anxiety dreams and nightmares are expressions of our unconscious desires. He uses the special "language" of dreams to explain his dreams. In his book, Freud talks more about the "dream work", which is the process by which the mind translates and distorts "dream thoughts' into dream content. The Interpretation of Dream presents the method called psychoanalysis,  the psychic process of "censorship" and the significance of childhood experiences.

The Ego and the Id (1923)

This analytical study of human psyche talks about three systems: the id, ego and superego that are developed at different stages of our lives.  Freud claims that the id (or it) is the impulsive and unconscious part of our psyche that directly responds to our instincts or needs. It consists of biological components of personality such as the sex instinct "Eros" and aggressive instinct called "Thanatos." The ego (or I) is the part of the id that is influenced by external world and mediates between the unrealistic id and the external real world. The ego functions or operates according to the "reality principle" and uses more realistic strategies to obtain pleasure. The last system is superego (above I) develops during the age of 4 or 5 and focuses on the values and morals of society. It consists of two systems: the conscience and the ideal self. This study is an important part of psychoanalysis. 

Mourning and Melancholia (1917)

Mourning and melancholia is a psychological and psychotherapeutic theory written by Sigmund Freud. One of the basic concepts of this theory is that a person's development is influenced and determined by events that happened in early childhood. It also suggests that human behavior, experience and cognition are determined by irrational drive that are usually unconscious. Freud claims that when the person becomes aware of his drives then he uses psychological resistance called "defense mechanism." This defense mechanisms is used to protect a person from mental disturbances created by conflicts between conscious and unconscious. He also believes that mourning is a natural process while melancholia is a pathological one.

On The Sexual Theories Of Children (1908)

It's Freud's article that is part of a whole set of writings, in which he focused on the role of childhood sexuality  as well as on sexuality in general. Freud claims that the child's curiosity about where he cam from arises from a "vital exigency" called Lebensnot. In his article Freud introduces three theories. The first one consists in the attribution to all human beings of a penis-including females and suggests the belief in a castration that accounts for the configuration of the woman's genitalia. The second theory concerns birth and claims that "the baby is evacuated like a stool from the mother's body." The last one deals with parental coitus. It pictures it as struggle where the mother is attacked by the father. In Freud's view, the wish to know is more like a sexual wish.

Experiments in Intergroup Discrimination

Name: Under-estimators and over-estimators experiment conducted by Henri Tajfel (1970)

Aim: The aim of Tajfel's study was to demonstrate that categorization of people is sufficient for people to discriminate in favor of their own group and against people of the other group.

Participants: The participants were 64 boys of ages 14 and 15 from a school in a suburb of Bristol.T

Procedure: The participants were divided into 8 group. All of the boys in each group knew each other. The boys then were told to go together to the lecture room. In the lecture room the researcher told them that the experiment was interested in the study of visual judgments. Then forty clusters of varying numbers of dots were flashed on the screen. The boys were asked to record each of them. In this experiment were two conditions and the researchers made sure 4 groups of 8 served are in each condition. After they finished the test the boys who were in 1. condition groups were told that some people constantly overestimated the number of dots and some consistently underestimate the number of dots. In the 2. condition groups the boys were told that some of them were always more accurate than the others. After the judgments had been made the boys were told they were going to be divided into new groups according to the visual judgments they had just made. The truth is that the participants were randomly assigned to the groups. Then the researchers gave the participants another task. They were given a booklet of matrices and were told to give other students/participants rewards and penalties in real money. The boys did not know the identities of people who they were giving rewards and penalties. The boys were asked to three types of choice:

1. in-group choices: both top and bottom row referred to members of the same groups as the boy.
2. out-group choices: both top and bottom row referred to members of the different group from the boy.
3. inter-group choices: one row referred to the boys' own group and the other one to the other group.

Results: The researchers found out that in in-group and out-group choices participants gave the same amount of money to all members. However, in inter-group choices most of the participants gave more money to  members of their own group than to  members of other groups.

Conclusion: The experiment conducted by Tajfel demonstrates that inter-group discrimination is quite easy to trigger off. It also shows that categorization of people into groups leads to conflict.

Strengths: Tajfel made sure that he had the high-level of control on the procedure (for example when students were awarding points to other students they did not know their names).

Limitations: One of the limitations was that the experiment wasn't done naturally but in the laboratory. Tajfel's experiment was criticized for being ecologically invalid.

Cultural Differences: None

Errors of Attribution

Attribution errors

It's a psychological term for describing a process of inferring the cause of events or behavior without being aware of the underlying processes and biases that lead to those inferences.

Self-Serving Bias

It's an attribution error in which you attribute your success to your internal abilities like talent and your failure to external forces (outside variables). For example: when you win a basketball game, you attribute the win to your physical abilities or talent. However, when you lose  you put blame on the referrers. Psychologists and researchers believe that by doing this people just try to protect their self-esteem.

 Self-Serving Bias in Children

a) This study was conducted by Elizabeth Posey and Randolph A. Smith from Ouachita Baptist University

b) Its aim was to investigate self-serving bias in children (the study provides evidence of self-serving bias). Twenty male and 16 female second graders were participating in this experiment. These children were paired with with a partner of same gender and were asked to complete 3 minutes math worksheet as a group. However, one half of the participants was paired up with a friend while the other one was not. At the end all of them received feedback that indicated their success or failure.

c) The results showed that the people in non-friend groups were blaming the failure or the bad performance to their partners. When they were asked who did better job they tended to give a credit for themselves. On the contrary children who were paired up with a friend were less likely to blame others or external/situational factors for their failure.

d) Participants who were blaming others for the failure clearly demonstrated self-serving bias. By putting the blame on their partners children wanted to protect their ego or self-esteem.

Cultural Differences in Relation To The Self-Serving Bias 

a) This study was conducted in 1986 by Kashima and Triandis

b) 34 Japanese graduate students and 202 American undergraduate students participated in this experiment. The participants were shown and then asked to remember 15 slides pertaining to life in Israel, Greece and Iran. Then they were given 5-minute recognition test that was based on those slides. After the test the participants were shown 5 slides pertaining to life in India. Then they were given 3-minute test based on those 5 slides about India. Participants were randomly assigned to either success or failure group. People in the success group were told they scored 12/15 while the people in the failure group were told they scored only 5/15. Then all of the participants were given an attribution questionnaire.

c)American students tended to attribute their success to their talent or abilities. (Self-serving bias; individualistic country)

  Japanese students tended to attribute their failure to lack of their abilities. (Modesty bias; collectivist culture)

  Both Americans and Japanese students responded similarly when they were given situational information