Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Mar;31(2):271-284.
doi: 10.1002/erv.2956. Epub 2022 Nov 17.

Verbal memory following weight gain in adult patients with anorexia nervosa: A longitudinal study

Valentin Terhoeven  1 , Sandra Faschingbauer  1 , Julia Huber  2 , Wolfgang Herzog  1 , Hans-Christoph Friederich  1 , Joe J Simon  1 , Christoph Nikendei  1
Affiliations

Verbal memory following weight gain in adult patients with anorexia nervosa: A longitudinal study

Valentin Terhoeven et al. Eur Eat Disord Rev. 2023 Mar.

Abstract

Background: Patients with Anorexia Nervosa (AN) show a moderate deficit in overall neuropsychological functioning. Since previous studies on memory performance mainly employed cross-sectional designs, the present study aims to investigate changes in verbal memory following weight-gain.

Methods: Verbal memory was assessed with the Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised (WMS-R; 'logical memory'-story-recall-subtest) and the California Verbal Learning Test-II (CVLT-II; 'verbal learning'). Included were 31 female patients with AN (18 restricting-, 13 purging-subtype; average disease duration: 5.1 years; average baseline BMI: 14.4 kg/m2 ) and 24 medication-free normal-weight healthy women adjusted for age at baseline (T0). In a post-treatment assessment of approx. 6 weeks with weight increase (T1), 18 patients with AN and 20 healthy women were assessed again. Group differences in verbal memory (i.e., WMS-R, CVLT-II) were assessed for the baseline comparisons with a multivariate ANOVA and longitudinal data were analysed with repeated measures (RM) ANOVAs.

Results: At baseline, patients with AN as compared to healthy women displayed deficits in logical memory. In the follow-up assessment, patients with AN improved their logical memory significantly compared to healthy controls (p < 0.006). Furthermore, groups did not differ in verbal learning neither before nor after inpatient treatment.

Conclusions: Enhanced logical memory in patients with AN following weight-gain is probably due to the impaired memory as compared to healthy controls at T0. A survivorship bias could explain the improved memory performance in longitudinal data in contrast to cross-sectional studies. Patients with AN with poorer memory performance before inpatient treatment are at higher risk to drop out and need support.

Keywords: CVLT; anorexia nervosa; eating disorder; logical memory.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

REFERENCES

    1. American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). American Psychiatric Association. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.books.9780890425596
    1. Arastéh, K., Baenkler, H., & Bieber, C. (2018). DR Innere Medizin (4. Aufl.). Georg Thieme Verlag KG.
    1. Arcelus, J., Mitchell, A. J., Wales, J., & Nielsen, S. (2011). Mortality rates in patients with anorexia nervosa and other eating disorders. A meta-analysis of 36 studies. Archives of General Psychiatry, 68(7), 724-731. https://doi.org/10.1001/archgenpsychiatry.2011.74
    1. Bartholdy, S., Rennalls, S. J., Jacques, C., Danby, H., Campbell, I. C., Schmidt, U., & O'Daly, O. G. (2017). Proactive and reactive inhibitory control in eating disorders. Psychiatry Research, 255, 432-440. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2017.06.073
    1. Brockmeyer, T., Friederich, H. C., & Schmidt, U. (2018). Advances in the treatment of anorexia nervosa: A review of established and emerging interventions. Psychological Medicine, 48(8), 1228-1256. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0033291717002604

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources