Time-limited versus open-ended treatment for Anorexia Nervosa: a health-economic evaluation alongside two paired prospective cohorts

Treatment guidelines for Anorexia Nervosa advise three treatments: CBT-E, MANTRA and SSCM. To test if duration of treatment is shortened and thereby costs lowered, specialist treatment (TAU) is compared to time-limited treatment (CBT-E, MANTRA or SSCM) allocated by Shared Decision Making (SDM) in this study. 

People: Alberte Jansingh

Grant: ZonMw

Eating behaviors of autistic women with an eating disorder

Research into the eating behaviours of women with both diagnosed autism spectrum disorder and an eating disorder is scarce. This study aims to gain insight into the eating behaviours of autistic women with an eating disorder by comparing their behaviours to women with an eating disorder that are not autistic and to autistic women that do not have an eating disorder. In addition to that, we are investigating whether their attitudes and behaviors towards food are associated with other (co-morbid) problems and quality of life.

People: Sabrina Schröder

A comparison of emotion experience in anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and panic disorder

Negative emotions are part and parcel of everyday life. Regulating those emotions in an adequate way, is a key problem for many people, but particularly for individuals with eating disorders. It has been widely acknowledged that individuals with ED lack the ability to regulate emotions effectively and that they score high on alexithymia. Most noticeable are the difficulties with identifying and describing their emotions. However, if these processes follow similar patterns between Anorexia and Boulimia nervosa remains unclear. Therefore, in this study we aim to measure the emotional response to an anger induction in people with either anorexia or boulimia nervosa and compare both the psychological and physiological responses between both groups and to a healthy control population. Aim is to see to what extent these responses and the concordance between the responses differ between groups. 

People: Benny van der Vijgh, Unna Danner

Microbiome-Gut-Brain in Anorexia Nervosa

MiGBAN (Microbiome-Gut-Brain Axis in Anorexia Nervosa) is a large, multi-center study on the interactions of the gut microbiome with the brain in patients with Anorexia nervosa. It is funded by the European Research Area Network for Funding Neuroscience Research (ERA-NET NEURON) and includes researchers from Austria, France, Germany, and The Netherlands. Aim of the study is to unravel the underlying mechanisms of how the microbiome influences clinical symptoms and prognosis. To this end patients are followed for one year in which data is collected relating to, amongst others, neuropsychological functioning and micorbiome composition. 

People: Benny van der Vijgh, Unna Danner, Roger Adan

Grant: ERA-NET

The dissection of the genetic background of specific traits within eating disorders

In anorexia nervosa, as it is in other complex disorders, environmental (including cultural aspects) as well as biological factors play a role in development of the disease. Twin studies and linkage analysis have shown a clear genetic component, although only a few genes have convincingly been associated with eating disorders persé. This indicates the difficulty of finding and determining the genetic background of the complex and multifactorial eating disorders. In this study we therefore  investigate whether there are specific candidate genes and gene-systems associated with specific endophenotypes within eating disorders. To this end blood samples are collected from adolescent and adult patients with eating disorders. Information on specific endophenotypes is collected using questionnaires and tests. DNA will be isolated from the blood samples and the phenotypic scores will be studied to obtain information on specific endophenotypes present in the patients. Based on the information on endophenotypes allelic variants, specific candidate genes will be tested in the DNA samples for association with the endophenotype.

Validation of the ED-15, a Brief Session-by-Session Questionnaire to Measure Changes in Eating Disorder Cognitions and Behaviors

The ED-15 is a 15-item questionnaire that was recently translated into Dutch and is used in clinical practice. We will conduct a study on the psychometric qualities of the Dutch version of the questionnaire. The study comprises a combination of cross-sectional and longitudinal survey design and will compare outcomes of a clinical and a general population.

People: Caya van Eikenhorst, Benny van der Vijgh, Unna Danner

Reliability and Validity of the Dutch translation of the Caregiver Skills Scale (CASK-NL)

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People: Christien Schilder

Leptin and hyperactivity in Anorexia Nervosa

Enhanced activity levels or hyperactivity is a frequently observed symptom present in Anorexia Nervosa patients. It has been found that Leptin, a hormone involved in energy balance, can reduce this hyperactive symptoms in models for Anorexia Nervosa. That is why we conduct a study to unravel the effects of leptin on hyperactivty observed in Anorexia Nervosa. With this, we aim to identify the neuronal populations which are mediating leptins effects using a model for Anorexia, called: the Activity-based Anorexia model (ABA).

People: Nick Papavoine, Roger Adan