Neuropsychological Functioning in Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa

Abstract

Anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa are eating disorders in which a wide range of neuropsychological alterations are exhibited; however, the neuropsychology of bulimia nervosa has been poorly studied, and inconsistency has been found in results from different studies. Therefore, the aim of this chapter is to evaluate the differences in the neuropsychological functioning among women with anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa and with no eating disorders. Seventy-two women participated in this study: 18 with anorexia nervosa, 24 with bulimia nervosa and 30 without any eating disorder; all of them answered the neuropsychological version of the Wechsler Adults Intelligence Scale-III (WAIS-III), the Rey Complex Figure Test, the Tower of London Task and the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test. Overall, the results showed similar difficulties in anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa groups, such as in the visuoconstructive process, executive functioning (specifically in planning skills to achieve a goal, cognitive flexibility and working memory), in selective attention and in nonverbal reasoning and common sense judgment when facing complex problems. These findings open the possibility to reformulate intervention programs for management of bulimia nervosa and consider the use of cognitive remediation therapy, which is already used in anorexia nervosa with a good prognosis.