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Development and validation of the Premorbid Childhood Traits Questionnaire (PCT-Q) in eating disorders

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Abstract

Purpose

Some features of eating disorders (EDs) are often present in childhood before the onset of the ED. We developed a novel questionnaire to retrospectively capture such childhood traits.

Methods

Focus groups were conducted at the University of California–San Diego, USA, and at the University of Turin, Italy. Three focus groups were conducted at each site, interviewing patients and parents to identify those traits that most commonly characterize childhood of patients with EDs. A preliminary version of the Premorbid Childhood Traits Questionnaire (PCT-Q) derived from these focus groups was then administered to 94 consecutive inpatients with an ED and to 286 healthy controls (HCs) at the Turin site. Also, 208 participants’ parents were enrolled as well; in fact, the PCT-Q was developed with both a proband and an informant version.

Results

A 37-item final version of the PCT-Q was generated. Reliability analyses suggested acceptability for harm avoidance (HA), social phobia, alexithymia, interoceptive awareness (IA), and food obsessions. Inter-rater reliability ranged from fair to moderate. ED sufferers scored significantly higher than HCs on HA, social phobia, alexithymia, IA, and food obsessions.

Conclusions

These findings support the possibility that premorbid traits contribute to a risk to develop an ED in some individuals.

Level of evidence

III: case–control analytic study.

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Data availability

The data sets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Funding

This is unfunded research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neuroscience, University of Turin, Via Cherasco 11, 10126, Turin, Italy

    Enrica Marzola, Secondo Fassino & Giovanni Abbate-Daga

  2. Department of Clinical and Biological Sciences, University of Turin, Turin, Italy

    Giuseppe Migliaretti

  3. Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, CA, USA

    Walter H. Kaye

Authors
  1. Enrica Marzola
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  2. Secondo Fassino
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  3. Giuseppe Migliaretti
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  4. Giovanni Abbate-Daga
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  5. Walter H. Kaye
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Correspondence to Enrica Marzola.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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This article is part of topical collection on Personality and eating and weight disorders.

The study took place at two sites: at the University of California San Diego, Eating Disorders Research and Treatment Program, Chancellor Park, 4510 Executive Drive, Suite 315, San Diego CA 92121; and at the Eating Disorders Centre of the University of Turin, via Cherasco 11, 10126, Turin, Italy.

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Marzola, E., Fassino, S., Migliaretti, G. et al. Development and validation of the Premorbid Childhood Traits Questionnaire (PCT-Q) in eating disorders. Eat Weight Disord 24, 815–823 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40519-019-00748-y

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