EPA-0777 – Alexithymia, Facial Emotion Identification and Social Inference in ed Patients: A Case-Control Study

Abstract

Introduction:

Alexythimia, reduced cognitive empathy and emotion awareness and understanding are present among individuals with Eating Disorders (EDs). Facial expression is a reliable marker of emotion and an important source of social information. Thus, the ability to judge facial expression is essential for successful interpersonal interactions.

Objectives:

To evaluate alexythimia, facial emotion identification and social inference abilities in a sample of ED patients, compared to a sample of patients with another psychiatric diagnosis and a group of healthy controls, matched by gender and age.

Aims:

To describe a specific pattern of emotional dysregulation in ED patients.

Methods:

ED patients and the Psychiatric Control Group are recruited at the Institute of Psychiatry in Novara, while healthy controls are recruited on a community basis. All patients and controls are females, aged 18–65. All patients are undergoing the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV -Patient version (SCID-I-P), healthy controls are administered the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV – Non Patient version (SCID-I-NP).

All subjects are undergoing the following: SCID-II, Eating Disorder Inventory − 3 (EDI-3), Binge Eating Scale (BES), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Symptom Checklist − 90 (SCL-90), Facial Emotion Identification Test (FEIT), The Awareness of Social Inference Test (TASIT), Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI), Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES), Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI), Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20).

Results:

The recruitment and analysis of the samples are ongoing. The ED sample is expected to show greater alexythimia and a poorer performance at FEIT and TASIT, compared to the control samples.

Conclusions:

Clinical implications will be discussed.