Disorder specific rewarding stimuli in anorexia nervosa

Abstract

Objective: To enhance our understanding of rewarding stimuli in anorexia nervosa (AN) and to provide a basis for future research on reward processes disorder specific rewarding stimuli were investigated. Method: We developed a set of pictures with ‘disorder specific reward’ stimuli and evaluated valence, arousal and reward ratings in 25 patients with AN and 25 healthy controls (HC). Results: We found higher valence, arousal and reward ratings in AN compared to HC for the ‘disorder specific reward’ stimuli. From our six sub categories of the ‘disorder specific re-ward’ stimuli the categories ‘sport’, ‘losing weight’ and ‘healthy food’ showed higher reward ratings compared to the categories ‘discipline’, ‘thin bodies’ and ‘appreciation of others’. Discussion: The previously used category ‘thin bodies’ for investigations of the reward system might be less effective than stimuli from the categories ‘sport’, ‘losing weight’ and ‘healthy food’