Grant: Doctoral Research Award - Priority Announcement: Patient-Oriented Research

There is research suggesting that people with anorexia have problems with certain types of thinking. For example, they may have difficulty thinking flexibly, in terms of adapting their thinking to suit the changing needs of tasks. They may also have trouble thinking about the big picture, instead focusing on small details. Some researchers have explored whether people with other eating disorders, such as bulimia, have the same types of thinking difficulties, but currently it is not clear whether this is the case. This study investigates the types of thinking problems that people with different types of eating disorders might have, including how they compare to one another and to people without any eating disorder. It is predicted that people with bulimia and a more general eating disorder will also have difficulties in some types of thinking. This study will also look at whether problems with thinking before entering treatment can tell us how people will respond to hospital treatment, and it is predicted that greater impairments will be related to poorer treatment outcomes. Lastly, this study examines whether problems with thinking are improved after regular hospital treatment, and it is predicted that these thinking styles will change moderately after treatment. This study will ask people with eating disorders to complete a number of tasks looking at thinking style. Their results will be compared to people without eating disorders, and will also be examined in relation to treatment outcomes. This will help researchers to better understand what types of problems in thinking people with eating disorders might have, and how this relates to treatment. Because eating disorders require intensive treatment, and because many patients often do not ever fully recover, better understanding may help us to improve treatments for Canadians with eating disorders, as well as to reduce the health care costs associated with eating disorders.