Follow-up study of affect, anxiety and aggression in inpatient treatment of anorexia nervosa
Engel, K.; Meier, I.
Zeitschrift für Psychosomatische Medizin und Psychoanalyse 35(1): 10-29
1989
ISSN/ISBN: 0340-5613 PMID: 2922961 Document Number: 346977
Under the assumption of affect-defense (alexithymia) n = 20 anorexia nervosa patients being treated in the University Hospital of Hamburg-Eppendorf from 1980 to 1982 were examined with respect to their affects of anxiety and aggressivity by employing speach samples (three times a week)--according to Gottschalk-Gleser--and questionnaires (ANIS) during hospitalization and compared to n = 10 control patients from somatic clinics (orthopedics, surgery, gynecology). Particularly examined were emotional responses toward events during the in-patient period. As the most important result we found distinct affectivity in the anorexia patients that was partly stronger than that of the somatic control patients, so that (judged from our sample of anorexia nervosa) the hypothesis of alexithymia has to be rejected.