Abstract
Objective
Patients with anorexia nervosa (AN) often show difficulties in the perception, expression, and regulation of emotions and a strong avoidance of aversive feelings. According to psychobiological models, dietary restraint and accompanying weight loss may serve as a maladaptive mechanism of emotion regulation by attenuating aversive emotional states in AN, thereby contributing to the maintenance of the disorder.
Method
Twenty‐seven women with AN and 26 age‐matched healthy women were shown short film‐clips to elicit fear, sadness, amusement, and neutral emotional states. Eyeblink startle response was measured by electromyography in reaction to startle‐eliciting acoustic stimuli presented 12 times binaurally during each film‐clip.
Results
As compared to healthy controls, patients with AN showed a blunted startle response to the fear‐ but not to the sadness‐eliciting stimulus.
Discussion
The findings support the assumption that underweight is associated with attenuated emotional reactivity to fear‐eliciting material in AN. This is in line with the hypothesis that starvation and low body weight constitute a maladaptive mechanism of emotion regulation in AN, contributing to the maintenance of the disorder.