Both treatments appear to have value as first-line outpatient interventions for patients with broadly defined AN. Longer term outcomes remain to be evaluated.

Objective: Dropout from treatment has serious implications for patients, clinicians, and researchers. The aim of this study was to examine rates of dropout from outpatient treatment for anorexia nervosa (AN) and critically examine the various definitions of dropout used.Method: A systematic review was conducted, including pharmacological and psychological interventions. All articles in PubMed, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Library were considered, and screened against a priori inclusion/exclusion criteria. Relationships between treatment outcome and dropout rate were examined across studies.Results: Nineteen relevant studies were identified, with dropout rates ranging from 4.8% (family therapy) to 100% (dietary advice). In most cases, dropout was in the range of 20-40%. Definitions of dropout used varied widely. A significant negative correlation was found between rate of dropout and body mass index (BMI) at 1 year, but this did not remain significant when differences in BMI at baseline were taken into account.Discussion: High rates of dropout from treatment for AN have serious implications for recovery, research, and the development of new treatments. A suggested reporting structure is proposed, with the aim of increasing the consistency of dropout reporting and facilitating greater understanding of this phenomenon. V V C 2011 by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Basic social cognition does not appear to be impaired in people with BN. Future research should make use of more complex, ecologically valid measures, and consider the relationship between task performance and everyday social functioning.

Background and objectivesInvoluntary autobiographical memories that spring unbidden into conscious awareness form part of everyday experience. In psychopathology, involuntary memories can be associated with significant distress. However, the cognitive mechanisms associated with the development of involuntary memories require further investigation and understanding. Since involuntary autobiographical memories are image-based, we tested predictions that visuospatial (but not other) established cognitive tasks could disrupt their consolidation when completed post-encoding.MethodsIn Experiment 1, participants watched a stressful film then immediately completed a visuospatial task (complex pattern tapping), a control-task (verbal task) or no-task. Involuntary memories of the film were recorded for 1-week. In Experiment 2, the cognitive tasks were administered 30-min post-film.ResultsCompared to both control and no-task conditions, completing a visuospatial task post-film reduced the frequency of later involuntary memories (Expts 1 and 2) but did not affect voluntary memory performance on a recognition task (Expt 2).LimitationsVoluntary memory was assessed using a verbal recognition task and a broader range of memory tasks could be used. The relative difficulty of the cognitive tasks used was not directly established.ConclusionsAn established visuospatial task after encoding of a stressful experience selectively interferes with sensory-perceptual information processing and may therefore prevent the development of involuntary autobiographical memories.