Cognitive Remediation Therapy (CRT) was designed to address the inflexible and detail focused thinking styles frequently reported in individuals with Anorexia Nervosa (AN). This paper reports the development and acceptability of a pilot of CRT for AN in group format. Four group sessions were designed and piloted with 30 patients in an eating disorder service. The voluntary drop out rate was 20%. Outcome measures targeting patients' self-reported cognitive flexibility, self esteem and motivation to change were completed in the first and last sessions. Statistically significant gains were found in self reported ability to change (p=0.03). Both patients and group facilitators found the group acceptable, useful and a positive experience.

Cognitive Remediation and Emotion Skills Training (CREST), a brief social cognition intervention, was developed for inpatients with Anorexia Nervosa (AN). CREST was piloted and evaluated in 28 Anorexia Nervosa patients on a specialist eating disorder inpatient unit. Content analysis was employed to qualitatively explore patients' experience of the intervention. Results suggest that patients perceived CREST positively. Main themes identified were that patients' valued education regarding the function of emotions and found learning strategies to manage and express emotions helpful. The clinical and research implications are discussed.

Anorexia nervosa (AN) is associated with difficulties in emotion regulation and this study aimed to examine emotion regulation experimentally in this group compared to healthy controls (HCs). Sixty-six women took part: 22 with AN and 44 HCs. Both groups completed the Rosenzweig Picture Frustration Study in which participants' responses to socially frustrating situations are scored regarding the direction of aggression/anger (outwardly/inwardly or neutralized) and type of aggression/anger (focused on the people or the obstacles in the situation, or solution-focused). Individuals with AN provided significantly fewer solution-focused responses and focused aggression on the people in the situation more often than HCs. There was also a trend for the AN group to neutralize aggression less compared to HCs. The findings support models of AN which suggest that difficulties with emotional processing, particularly around anger are associated with AN. Future work could explore these initial findings in a larger sample.