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Emotional and non-emotional facets of impulsivity in eating disorders: From anorexia nervosa to bulimic spectrum disorders.

CIBER Fisiopatología Obesidad y Nutrición (CIBERobn), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain. Addictive Behavior Unit, Department of Psychiatry, Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, Barcelona, Spain. Department of Psychiatry, University Hospital of Bellvitge-IDIBELL, Barcelona, Spain. Department of Psychobiology and Methodology, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain. Department of Experimental Psychology, Mind, Brain, and Behavior Research Center, University of Granda, Granada, Spain. Department of Experimental Psychology, Autonomous University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain. Department of Basic Psychology, University of Málaga, Málaga, Spain. Clinical Sciences Department, School of Medicine, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain. Neurophysiology Unit, Neurology Department, Hospital Universitari de Bellvitge, L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain.

European eating disorders review : the journal of the Eating Disorders Association. 2020;(4):410-422
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Abstract

OBJECTIVE Impulsivity and difficulties in regulating emotions are considered to be transdiagnostic characteristics of patients with eating disorders (EDs). The study aimed to investigate trait impulsivity and inhibitory components of impulsivity, related or unrelated to emotions in patients with EDs. METHOD A total of 17 patients with anorexia nervosa (AN), 16 patients with bulimic-spectrum EDs (BSD) and 20 healthy control (HC) participants completed an impulsivity scale (UPPS-P) before performing an emotional inhibitory control task during electroencephalography (EEG) acquisition. RESULTS Higher trait impulsivity in EDs than HC (with higher scores among BSD patients) was observed. However, no differences in behavioural measures or neural indexes [event-related potential (ERP)] of emotional and non-emotional inhibitory control were observed between patients and HC. CONCLUSION The present results highlighted negative urgency, an impulsive personality trait related to emotions, as a common feature of AN and BSD. Lack of perseverance, a trait which is less related to emotions, specifically characterises patients with BSD. On the other hand, behavioural and ERP data did not show altered inhibitory control in EDs, for either general or emotional-related response inhibition.