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Why Study Positive Emotions in the Context of Eating Disorders?

  • Eating Disorders (C Grilo, Section Editor)
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Abstract

Experimental research, supported by systematic reviews, establishes that people with eating disorders have emotional difficulties in terms of recognising, regulating and expressing their emotions. These emotional difficulties contribute to poor social functioning and problems with relationships. The existing literature includes a broad range of studies, many of which have utilised self-report measures, but experimental studies of emotions in eating disorders are still limited. The primary aim of this paper is to highlight gaps in the clinical research on emotions in eating disorders, focusing on experimental investigations from our lab and highlighting potentially useful future directions for further basic research and its translation into new developments in treatment and prevention. Recent findings using experimental paradigms to study the expression of emotions along with neuroimaging research exploring differences in facial emotion processing are discussed, and clinical implications are presented.

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Acknowledgments

KT would like to thank Swiss Anorexia Foundation, Maudsley Charity, Psychiatry Research Trust, and M. Marin Dapelo would like to thank the CONICYT-Becas Chile Ph.D. Scholarship abroad programme.

Compliance with Ethics Guidelines

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Conflict of Interest

Kate Tchanturia, Marcela A. Marin Dapelo, Amy Harrison, and David Hambrook declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Psychological Medicine, King’s College London, PO 59, De Crespigny Park 16, London, SE5 8AF, UK

    Kate Tchanturia

  2. South London and Maudsley Eating Disorders Specialist Service, London, UK

    Kate Tchanturia

  3. Illia State University, Tbilisi, Georgia

    Kate Tchanturia

  4. Psychological Medicine, King’s College London, 103 Denmark Hill, London, SE5 8AF, UK

    Marcela A. Marin Dapelo

  5. Ellern Mede Centre for Eating Disorders, Holcombe Hill, The Ridgeway, Mill Hill, London, NW7 4HX, UK

    Amy Harrison

  6. Southwark Psychological Therapies Service, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK

    David Hambrook

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  1. Kate Tchanturia
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  2. Marcela A. Marin Dapelo
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  4. David Hambrook
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kate Tchanturia.

Additional information

This article is part of the Topical Collection on Eating Disorders

The first and second authors contributed equally to this publication.

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Tchanturia, K., Dapelo, M.A.M., Harrison, A. et al. Why Study Positive Emotions in the Context of Eating Disorders?. Curr Psychiatry Rep 17, 537 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11920-014-0537-x

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