Objective This 15 years longitudinal study aimed to examine whether difficulties in cognitive processing of emotions persisted after long‐term recovery from anorexia nervosa (AN), and its link to anxiety and depression. Method Twenty‐four females, who were tested longitudinally during their acute and recovered AN phases, and 24 healthy control (HC) women, were screened for anxiety, depression, alexithymia, emotion regulation difficulties (ER; only assessed in recovery phase), and completed an experimental task to analyse emotional experience. Results In spite of significant improvement in alexithymia, anxiety, and depression with AN recovery, some emotion functioning difficulties did not normalize. The occurrence of comorbid anxiety and depression explained the reduced ability to identify, understand, and accept emotions in long‐term recovery (relative to controls), but not the increased global difficulty in using ER strategies, which revealed a more stable nature of deficit. With recovery, negative emotions linked to situations addressing food and body weight are felt more intensely. Conclusions Managing emotions, especially the negative ones, remains a challenge for individuals recovered from AN. Under this circumstance, maladaptive eating behaviour can serve as an affect regulatory function, increasing the risk of relapse. Emotional education is an important avenue in protecting long‐term AN relapse.

ResumoContexto: As dificuldades inerentes ao tratamento da anorexia nervosa são bem conhecidas e é, ainda hoje, predominante a concepção da anorexia nervosa enquanto doença crônica. Contudo, diversos estudos mostram não só que a recuperação é possível como também que há inclusivamente mulheres que se recuperam espontaneamente, sem terem sido sujeitas a tratamento. Objetivo: Este estudo pretende, assim, rever a literatura existente relativamente a fatores que contribuíram para a recuperação na anorexia nervosa, quer relacionados com o tratamento quer com extratramento. Método e resultados: Para tal, a partir da revisão de 13 estudos existentes sobre a perspectiva de ex-pacientes acerca do que contribuiu para a recuperação, este artigo irá pôr em destaque que "diferenças fizeram a diferença", bem como em que medida os estudos existentes permitem uma compreensão de como essas diferenças podem fazer a diferença. Conclusão: Conclui-se que, apesar de a investigação estar, sobretudo, centrada na compreensão dos fatores de tratamento mais úteis, muitas ex-pacientes parecem destacar mais a utilidade dos fatores extratratamento, nomeadamente a importância das relações na manutenção e resolução do problema. Os mesmos fatores são considerados prejudiciais e/ou úteis para diferentes entrevistadas, o que remete para a complexidade do fenômeno da recuperação que ainda carece de mais investigação. Araújo MX, Henriques MIRS / Rev Psiq Clín. 2011;38(2):71-6Palavras-chave: Anorexia nervosa, recuperação, fatores de mudança. AbstractBackground: The difficulties in the treatment of anorexia nervosa are well known and there is still today a dominant conception of anorexia nervosa as a chronic illness. Nevertheless, several studies show not only that recovery is possible but also that there are women who recover spontaneously, even without medical treatment. Objective: This study intends to review the existing literature on the factors that contributed to the recovery in anorexia nervosa, whether or not related to treatment. Methods and results: From the review of 13 existing studies, on the perspective of former patients about what contributed to the recovery, this article highlights which "differences did make a difference" and analyzes how these differences can actually make the difference. Conclusion: The authors conclude that although research had been mainly focused on understanding the most important medical treatment factors, many former patients emphasize the usefulness of extra-treatment factors, namely the importance of relationships in the maintenance and resolution of the problem. The same factors are considered harmful and/or useful by different respondents, which bring us to the complexity of the recovery phenomenon that still requires further research.

RESUMOEste artigo apresenta uma revisão da literatura sobre os discursos dominantes sobre a anorexia nervosa da Idade Média à actualidade. Coloca em destaque os heróis, vilões e vítimas, culminando num olhar sistémico-familiar. Se durante séculos predominaram narrativas individuais de heroínas santas, posteriormente, na era do pensamento médico, estas heroínas passaram a vítimas de uma doença mental. Mais tarde, com os movimentos da anti-psiquiatria e da terapia familiar, emergem novas narrativas com mais protagonistas: os familiares. Se, primeiramente, as famílias são retratadas como vilãs, dadas as suas influências nocivas, nas últimas décadas as famílias são ilustradas como sistemas vítimas do impacto da doença. Na actualidade, surgem narrativas de famílias competentes, capazes de superar o problema. Este artigo termina refletindo sobre esta multiplicidade de leituras e suas implicações. Palavras-chave: anorexia nervosa; relações familiares; história.ABSTRACT This article presents a literature review of the dominant discourses on anorexia nervosa from Middle Ages to the present. It puts on evidence heroes, villains and victims, culminating in a family systemic look. At the beginning, individuals narratives of saints heroines were prevailing, in the age of the medical thought, these heroines became victims of mental illness. Later, with the anti-psychiatry and family therapy movements, new narratives come into view with more protagonists: the relatives. If, firstly, families are shown as villains, having harmful influences, in the last decades the families became systems that suffer with the impact of the disease. And nowadays narratives have descriptions of competent families that are able to deal with the problem. This article ends with a reflexion about these multiple visions and its implications.