Eating Disorders and Autism Spectrum Disorders

Completed

• Conditions: Eating Disorders

• Registration Number: NCT04564170
• Lead Sponsor: Fundació Institut de Recerca de l'Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau

Brief Summary

This is an observational study where patients with eating disorders (ED) are compared with healthy controls without eating disorder (HC) regarding eating disorders features and autism spectrum features. Also patients will be reassessed after 5 years.

Detailed Description

The first author who suggested that eating disorders (EAD) and autism spectrum disorders (ASD) share common features was Christopher Gilberg in 1980. Currently it is known that patients with ED have social impairment, which is also a risk marker to develop ED, eating disturbances are overrepresented in ASD, ED and ASD have common behavioural features such as rigidity, perfectionism, and harm avoidance; and common cognitive profiles such as inflexibility, high attention to detail, high scores in systemizing profiles and poor results in advanced theory of mind tests. This relationship is also supported by similar neural phenotypes such as atypical structure and function in social brain regions found in both disorders.

The aim of the present study is to explore the relationship between ED and ASD traits in a sample of Spanish participants diagnosed with AN, bulimia nervosa (BN), binge-eating disorder (BED) and other eating disorders (OED). Specifically, the investigators aim to explore possible differences within the different ED and its particular transdiagnostic features in association with autistic traits.

The sample will consist of 90 patients with ED and 45 healthy controls (HC) without any current or lifetime history of mental disorder, both groups will be compared regarding ED and ASD features. Also patients will be reassessed in a 5 year follow up.

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2020-04-01
• Study First Submitted: 2020-09-21
• Study First Submitted QC: 2020-09-21
• Study First Posted: 2020-09-25
• Primary Completion: 2021-09-01
• Study Completion: 2024-12-20
• Status Verified: 2025-02
• Last Update Submitted: 2025-02-25
• Last Update Posted: 2025-02-27

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 135

Inclusion Criteria

• Being Diagnosed with ED

Exclusion Criteria

• language or intellectual impairment

Study & Design

• Study Type: OBSERVATIONAL
• Study Design: Not specified

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Eating Disorders Inventory	one year	A self report measure of Eating Disorders characteristics. Its values range from 0 to 192, higher values mean higher eating disorders symptomatology.
Autism Spectrum Quotient	one year	A self report measure of autism traits. Its values range from 0 to 50. Higher scores mean higher autistic traits.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Body Shape Questionnaire	one year	A a self-report measure of the body shape preoccupations typical of bulimia nervosa and anorexia nervosa. Higher scores mean higher concern with shape. Score range from 34 to 204.
Quality of Life Enjoyment and Satisfaction Questionnaire	one year	The Quality of Life Enjoyment and Satisfaction Questionnaire (Q-LES-Q) is a self-report measure designed to enable investigators to easily obtain sensitive measures of the degree of enjoyment and satisfaction experienced by subjects in various areas of daily functioning. Its values range from 93 to 465. Higher values mean higher quality of life.
State Trait Anxiety Inventory	one year	A self report measure of anxiety symptomatology. It has two scores one for state of anxiety and another for trait of anxiety, each subscale values range from 0 to 60, higher scores mean higher state or trait of anxiety.
Inventory of interpersonal problems personality disorder	one year	A self report measure which is used to identify problems associated with particular personality disorders. Its values range from 0 to 256, higher scores mean higher interpersonal problems.
Bulimic Investigatory Test Edinburgh	one year	A self report measure of bulimic symptoms where higher scores mean more bulimic symptomatology. Scores range from 0 and 78.
Rosenberg Self -Esteem Scale	one year	A self report measure of self esteem. Its scores range from 10 to 40 where higher scores mean higher self -esteem
Beck Depression Inventory	one year	a self report measure of depression symptomatology. Scores rang form 0 to 63, higher scores mean more depressive symptomatology.
Scale Unawareness of Mental Disorders.	one year	A scale to asess awareness of mental disorders where higher punctuation mean higher levels of unawareness of the disorder. Scores range from 20 to 100.

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Cristina Carmona; 🇪🇸 Barcelona, Spain