Los objetivos formulados fueron: Identificar los Niveles de Conductas alimentarias, personales, psicoemocionales, socioculturales y familiares de riesgo hacia la Anorexia Nerviosa. El estudio es de nivel aplicativo, tipo cuantitativo, método descriptivo, de corte transversal . La población fue de 140 escolares de sexo femenino de 11 a 14 años de edad. La técnica fue la encuesta y el instrumento fue un formulario tipo escala de Lickert con una guía de preguntas abiertas. Los resultados fueron: En cuanto a las conductas alimentarias de riesgo, el 54% presentaron niveles de alto y mediano riesgo siendo mayor en las edades de 11 a 12 (30%) que en las de 13 a 14 (24%) relacionado a dietas. El 59% presentaron niveles de conductas personales de alto y mediano riesgo sobre experiencias estresantes y aspecto físico. El 60% con niveles de conductas psicoemocionales de alto y mediano riesgo sobre temores e imagen corporal. En las conductas socioculturales de riesgo, la mayoría (24%) de 11 a 12 años presentaron niveles de alto y mediano riesgo en comparación con las de 13 a 14 (16%) referidos al interés publicitario y relaciones interpersonales. El (25%) de 11 a 12 años con niveles de conductas familiares de alto y mediano riesgo en comparación con el (23%) de 13 a 14 años referido a la intromisión de los padres en la vida de sus hijos y discusiones. Por lo que se concluye que existe una mayoría considerable del 54% de escolares púberes y/o adolescentes que presentaron niveles de conductas de ALTO Y MEDIANO RIESGO hacia la Anorexia Nerviosa, que se evidencia en la adopción de conductas psicoemocionales, personales, alimentarias, familiares y socioculturales de riesgo. / The formulated objectives were: To identify the Levels of alimentary, personal Behaviors, psicoemocionales, sociocultural and family of risk toward the Nervous Anorexy. The study is of level applicative, quantitative type, descriptive method, of traverse court. The population belonged to 140 scholars of feminine sex from 11 to 14 years of age. The technique was the survey and the instrument was a form type scale of Lickert with a guide of open questions. The results were: As for the alimentary behaviors of risk, 54% presented levels of high and medium risk being bigger in the ages from 11 to 12 (30%) that in those of 13 at 14 (24%) related to diets. 59% presented levels of personal behaviors of high and medium risk it has more than enough experiences estresantes and physical aspect. 60% with levels of behaviors psicoemocionales of high and medium risk has more than enough fears and corporal image. In the sociocultural behaviors of risk, most (24%) of 11 to 12 years presented levels of high and medium risk in comparison with those from 13 to 14 (16%) referred to the advertising interest and interpersonal relationships. The (25%) of 11 to 12 years with levels of family behaviors of high and medium risk in comparison with the (23%) of 13 to 14 years referred to the interference of the parents in the life of their children and discussions. For what you conclude that a considerable majority of 54% of school púberes and/or adolescents that presented levels of behaviors of HIGH AND MEDIUM RISK toward the Nervous Anorexy that is evidenced in the adoption of behaviors psicoemocionales, exists personal, alimentary, family and sociocultural of risk.

Examensarbetet skildrar föräldrars upplevelser av att ha ett barn med Anorexia Nervosa. Föräldrarna har ett stort ansvar och en betydande roll under sjukdomstiden. Anorexia Nervosa har blivit en alltmer vanlig sjukdom som ofta drabbar flickor i tonåren och sjukdomen kännetecknas av en självsvält med en rädsla för att öka i vikt. Studien är litteraturbaserad. Nio vetenskapliga artiklar användes och analyserades i relation till syftet. Resultatet visar att föräldrarna upplevde att sjukdomen förändrade livssituationen. Äktenskapet blev drabbat och det beskrevs att det ofta fanns en oro för hur syskon påverkades. Stora delar av dygnet bestod av att se till att det drabbade barnet fick i sig näring. Föräldrar upplevde även en förändring av sitt egna liv då allt fokus låg på att hjälpa sitt barn att övervinna sin sjukdom. Frustration, oro och skuld var återkommande känslor som föräldrar upplevde i vardagen. Inledningsvis sökte föräldrarna information på egen hand för att få sina farhågor om sjukdomen bekräftade. Då de senare beslutade sig för att söka hjälp via vården upplevde ett flertal av föräldrarna att de blev dåligt bemötta av vårdpersonal. För att kunna hantera vardagen under sjukdomstiden beskrev föräldrar strategier som varit betydelsefulla för dem. Resultatet pekar på att föräldrar upplever ett behov av stöd under barnets sjukdomstid. Sjuksköterskan kan uppfylla föräldrars behov av stöd genom att bekräfta deras situation och inge ett hopp. Genom kunskap om föräldrars upplevelser kan sjuksköterskan utveckla sitt kompetensområde och öka kvalitén i omvårdnadsarbetet utifrån föräldrarnas behov. / Background Until the 80’s Anorexia Nervosa (AN) was a rare disease. With the influence from media and the growing ideal of how a human body should look like, AN is nowadays a more common disease. AN often have a negative effect on parents. Therefore, it is important that nurses and society gain an understanding of parents experiences of having a child with AN, and how it impact their lifes. Aim The aim of the study was to illuminate the experience of being a parent to a child with AN. Method This study is a literature review over qualitative scientific articles, which have been analyzed through a method of five steps according to Friberg. Results The results showed that AN has a negative impact on parents, both the personal life and family life. It also describes parents’ need for support. Parents experience many negative feelings as worrying, frustration and fear. They often had bad experiences of treatment from medical staff. Conclusion This study provides an understanding of parents’ feelings of having a child with AN. Parents have an important role for their children during their illness and on the road to recovery. If parents should be able to take the responsibility that comes with having a child with AN, they need support. Otherwise they can be a threat to their own health. This is something that the nurse should pay attention to.

M.A. / In the Western world, anorexia nervosa has long been regarded as an age-old medical syndrome and was conceded to have reached epidemic proportions in white South African females by the 1970s. On the contrary, it has been deemed to be non-existent in indigenous African females, this being attributed to the African socio-cultural preference for the fuller figure. The first clinical case in an indigenous female was reported in Nigeria (Nwaefuna, 1981). In South Africa, the first diagnosis in 1993 and earliest reporting of three cases by Szabo, Berk, Tlou and Allwood (1995) coloured the face of prevailing conceptualisation and was viewed as a nascent indication of global acculturation to a Western lifestyle and value system. This research represents the researcher’s invitation to the reader to embark on an exploratory journey into the biographically situated experience of anorexia nervosa as revealed through the personal experience stories of three black South African female participants. With the researcher’s quest to explore this as a uniquely human, lived experience, it became essential to open up the life of each participant as the arena in which this experience unfolded, so that seminal vicissitudes as well their sense of self in the course of this experience could be gleaned. Further, the researcher shied away from a fait accompli acceptance of the acculturation discourse and sought to interrogate it by giving voice to participants’ lived sense of the relationship between this experience and their cultural identity and affiliation. As its dialectic, the researcher also allowed participants to give voice to the cultural scrutiny of their experience through the lens of their culturally-referent others. Finally, the researcher opened up some of the seminal vicissitudes of her personal experience as the space for introspection and reflection on nuances and resonance between her experience and that of participants, without a concomitant attempt to generalise about either. Through post-modernist interpretive interactionism (Denzin, 1989), the researcher undertook a comprehensive deconstructive review of biopsychosocial discourses on the experience of anorexia nervosa, which sought to uncover and juxtapose various underlying models of human action. This review also included a feminist lens, which allowed that images and conceptions of women that exist within these discourses could be revealed, while simultaneously offering a critique of inherent culturally gendered dynamics. Through metaphoric simultaneity, the crystallised use of personal stories, drawings and naïve sketches sought to provide deepened, complexified and, if it be so, competing accounts of participants’ experience. The researcher drew a number of conclusions pursuant to participants’ experience of anorexia nervosa. First, that although biological factors could not be excluded, especially the role of genetics and hormones in adolescence, the exact nature thereof was beyond the scope of this inquiry and therefore inferential. Second, that although there were varying degrees of resonance in participants’ experience with some of the macro socio-cultural discourses considered, these did not appear to have been pathogenically pre-eminent. Third, that in the exploration of particular vicissitudes of participants’ family relational dynamics, the embryonic seeds and gestalt effect of their susceptibility matrix was vividly exposed. All factors considered, the researcher stands strongly in the opinion that gleaning this as the personal experience of three black female participants and drawing in sediments of her own personal experience, anorexia nervosa is ultimately a uniquely individual experience that stands as a covert and metaphoric language of personal distress. While it may sometimes overlap with some of the dynamics that have coloured the socio-cultural landscape in different epochs, it has its own dynamics and internal logic that is uniquely and inextricably tied to the specific vicissitudes of each person’s biographically constructed self. The specific probing of participants’ cultural identity and affiliation served to confirm that while the evolving cultural identity and affiliation of black females may be undeniable, the prevalent causal attribution of anorexia nervosa to acculturation appears to have been compellingly shown in this case to be an external and cursory one. Finally, the specific probing of participants’ experience through the eye of their culturally-referent others revealed that anorexia nervosa is culturally enigmatic. Its attribution, in participants’ socio-cultural context, to witchcraft, acculturation and especially to HIV and AIDS and attendant stigmatisation and shaming of an already deeply wounded person serves to indicate the degree of distress, isolation and rejection experienced by sufferers. By the same token, it also serves to illumine the felt equivalence of this period in participants’ socio-cultural context with HIV and AIDS. This study represents the researcher’s endeavour to convey participants’ experience of anorexia nervosa in its richness, in an attempt to render it understandable, without any concomitant attempt to foreclose or pretence of being exhaustive. Therefore, it recognises that the understanding presented here inalienably represents the researcher’s hermeneutic circle. The reader is thus invited, if not challenged, to discern their own understanding. Finally, it offers itself as a signpost for future research into what by all accounts, stands starkly as an untapped minefield.

Thesis advisor: Gorica D. Petrovich / Thesis advisor: Christina Reppucci / We are interested in exploring the instances in which environmental controls can override physiologic or homeostatic cues, and additionally the areas of the brain that might be implicated in such behavioral effects. For this study, we replicated a previously established behavioral finding in which male and female rats show fear-cue induced inhibition of eating, and that female rats take longer than male rats to extinguish this behavior. We assessed brain activation via Fos-expression in the NTS and DMX in the brainstem and found that males had higher brainstem activation than females during extinction of fear-cue induced inhibition of eating. Additionally, female experimental rats had suppressed activity in the caudal NTS compared to female control rats. The data from this study support our hypotheses that there are distinct activation patterns in the brainstem during the extinguishing of inhibition of eating, and that there are sex differences in these activation patterns. / Thesis (BS) — Boston College, 2013. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Psychology Honors Program. / Discipline: Psychology.

Thesis advisor: Barbara E. Wolfe / Background: Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a serious mental illness with physical and emotional consequences. Currently, there are limited effective treatments available to address this devastating condition. One possible biomarker implicated in this condition is brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a member of the neuron growth family. Pre-clinical studies indicate administration of BDNF is associated with decreased food intake and weight loss. Serum BDNF levels also have been shown to be reduced in AN compared to healthy controls (HC). In studies of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI's), blood levels of BDNF have been shown to increase following SSRI administration. This study sought to examine the possible relationship between peripheral BDNF levels and influence of an SSRI, and augmentation with 5-hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP) in persons with AN and HC's. Methods: This study examined previously collected samples from an investigation assessing the influence of SSRI administration and augmentation with 5-HTP on serotonin function in AN. The original study utilized a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled design. AN (n=16) and HC (n=49) subjects were randomized to 1 of 3 treatment conditions (fluoxetine, fluoxetine plus 5-HTP, and placebo) for 7 days of drug administration. Blood samples were collected following an overnight fast and stored at -70°C prior to batch analysis (ELISA). Results: Plasma BDNF levels in AN subjects (59.7 (SD 43.3) pg/ml) were not significantly (p=0.24) different from HC's (76.2 (SD 49.0) pg/ml). There were no significant differences between SSRI, SSRI plus 5-HTP, and placebo treatment groups within or between AN and HC groups. Conclusions: Although BDNF levels in AN subjects were lower than HC, the difference was not statistically significant. After 7 days of SSRI, SSRI plus 5-HTP, or placebo, there were no differences in BDNF levels between or within groups. The possibility exists that 7 days is not long enough to see an expressed effect of SSRI's on BDNF. Future studies would benefit from longer duration of SSRI's, assessing potential covariates (e.g. BMI, depression), and a larger sample. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2013. / Submitted to: Boston College. Connell School of Nursing. / Discipline: Nursing.

Thesis advisor: Gorica D. Petrovich / The drive to eat, like most motivated behaviors, is controlled by both intrinsic signals from the body as well as extrinsic signals from the environment. Although these factors often act in concert, in some instances environmental cues can override the body’s homeostatic signals. Prior work investigating the ability of learned cues to promote overeating in the absence of hunger identified a critical forebrain network composed of the amygdala, medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), and lateral hypothalamus (LHA). We hypothesized that a similar forebrain network may also be critical when learned fear-cues inhibit eating despite hunger. The amygdala, mPFC and LHA are each anatomically and functionally positioned to influence feeding, and evidence suggests they could work together to support the fear-cue’s ability to inhibit feeding by overriding homeostatic hunger signals triggered by food-deprivation. Prior anatomical work identified direct pathways between these three large, heterogeneous regions; however, less is known about the organization of the underlying circuitries, especially between distinct nuclei and/or subdivisions that comprise these structures. Study 1 used a dual retrograde tract tracing design to map the topographical organization of the connections between the amygdala, mPFC, and LHA in detail, and to determine whether amygdalar pathways to the mPFC and to LHA originated from the same or different neurons. We found evidence for multiple, topographically organized, direct pathways from the amygdala to the LHA, and separate pathways from the amygdala to areas of the mPFC that send direct projections to the LHA. Importantly, nearly all amygdalar projections to the mPFC and to the LHA originated from different neurons, suggesting that amygdala and amygdala-mPFC processing influence the LHA independently. Study 2 used immediate early gene induction to map the patterns of functional activation within this amygdala-prefrontal-lateral hypothalamic network during the expression of fear-cue inhibited feeding behavior, and to assess whether these patterns were similar in males and females. We found differential activation across the network, and activation patterns related to the presentation of fear-cues, the presence of food-related cues, and the amount of food consumed were associated within distinct cell groups in the amygdala, mPFC, and LHA. Together, the studies presented in this dissertation provide anatomical and functional maps for future interrogation of the circuitry underlying fear-cue inhibited feeding. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2015. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Psychology.

Thesis advisor: Gorica Petrovich / Thesis advisor: Christina Reppucci / In order to understand the neurobiological basis for the phenomenon in which environmental cues override physiological cues to influence the behavioral control of feeding, we utilized an animal model for fear-cue induced inhibition of eating. Female rats that had learned to associate a tone with foot-shocks showed inhibition of eating across three extinction tests, whereas male rats that had received tone-shock pairings extinguished their inhibition of eating after the first test day. We assessed activation of orexin (ORX), a neuropeptide involved in eating and arousal, in the lateral hypothalamic area (LHA) of the brains of male and female control and experimental rats during the final test day. Female rats exhibited greater recruitment of ORX neurons in the LHA than male rats; there was no difference in ORX activation between control and experimental groups of either sex, indicating that ORX is involved in sex differences in fear-cue induced inhibition of eating. / Thesis (BS) — Boston College, 2013. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: College Honors Program. / Discipline: Psychology.

Esta tese teve por objetivo validar e pesquisar a confiabilidade da Sessão de Transtornos Alimentares do DAWBA (“Development and Well-Being Assessment"), um pacote de entrevistas e técnicas de avaliação planejado para ser aplicado por entrevistadores sem experiência clínica prévia, para rastrear e diagnosticar transtornos alimentares em crianças e adolescentes do sexo feminino, de 7 a 17 anos, em estudos epidemiológicos. Participaram deste estudo 174 crianças e adolescentes de 8 a 17 anos, do sexo feminino, procedentes de três grupos: (1) 48 meninas com transtornos alimentares; (2) 55 controles clínicos – 21 em tratamento para depressão unipolar, 14 em tratamento para transtorno obsessivo-compulsivo e 20 em tratamento para doença gastrointestinal – e (3) 71 controles comunitários. Um dos pais de cada menina também foi entrevistado com o instrumento. Foram eleitos sujeitos destes três grupos para pesquisar a validade discriminante do instrumento quanto à sua capacidade de diferenciar jovens com transtornos alimentares e outros transtornos físicos ou psiquiátricos mimetizantes. O diagnóstico da presença ou não de transtorno alimentar – anorexia e bulimia nervosas e síndromes parciais - em cada sujeito, foi gerado utilizando-se três métodos diferentes independentes: (1) diagnóstico padrão-ouro, baseado no DSM-IV e CID-10, estabelecido através de entrevista clínica livre do pai e da menina juntos, realizada por psiquiatra infantil especialista em transtornos alimentares, cego para o grupo de origem da menina; (2)diagnóstico preliminar do computador gerado por algoritmo específico baseado na CID-10 e DSM-IV levando em considerando a informação estruturada coletada pelo instrumento e (3) diagnóstico final DAWBA, estabelecido por especialista treinado, baseado na CID-10 e DSM-IV, através da revisão cuidadosa dos relatórios fornecidos pelo software DAWBA com o resumo das informações colhidas com o instrumento. A validade concorrente dos diagnósticos DAWBA (preliminar do computador e final) foi pesquisada mediante comparação com o diagnóstico padrão ouro. A confiabilidade teste-reteste foi pesquisada reaplicando o instrumento duas ou três semanas após a primeira utilização, em 55 sujeitos (7 com transtornos alimentares, 20 controles clínicos e 28 controles comunitários). Os aplicadores estiveram cegos (tanto no teste quanto no reteste) para o grupo de origem do sujeito. Pesquisou-se a consistência interna (Alfa de Crombach) e os melhores pontos de corte das cinco questões de rastreamento, bem como sua sensibilidade e especificidade. Houve diferença significativa na média de idade entre os grupos com transtornos alimentares (média de 16,0 anos) e controles clínicos (média de 14,5 anos). Para a detecção de qualquer transtorno alimentar segundo o DSM-IV e a CID-10, o diagnóstico final pelo DAWBA apresentou sensibilidade de 100% e especificidade de 94%. Houve boa concordância teste-reteste (Kappa de 0,81) e boa consistência interna das questões de rastreamento, sendo o Alfa de Crombach de 0,76 na entrevista com as meninas e 0,81 na entrevista dos pais. Os melhores pontos de corte nas questões de rastreamento foram de dois e três, observando que, para um ponto de corte de três a sensibilidade foi de 89,8% em ambas as entrevistas (meninas e pais) e a especificidade de 85,6% na entrevista das meninas e 85,5% na entrevista dos pais. Foram limitações do estudo a diferença significativa na média de idade entre os grupos ‘com transtornos alimentares’ e ‘controles clínicos’, a não inclusão de crianças com transtornos alimentares menores de 11 anos e a impossibilidade de estabelecer comparações entre os grupos com relação a variáveis sócio-econômicas. Desta forma, pode-se concluir com o presente estudo que a Sessão de Transtornos Alimentares do DAWBA apresenta boa validade e confiabilidade no rastreamento e diagnóstico de transtornos alimentares em crianças e adolescentes do sexo feminino e tem aplicabilidade tanto em pesquisa clínica quanto em estudos epidemiológicos comunitários. / This thesis concerns the validation and investigation of the reliability of The Eating Disorders Section of The Development and Well-eing Assessment (DAWBA), a package of interviews and assessment techniques designed to be administered by trained interviewers without previous experience in eating disorders, for screening and diagnosis in epidemiological studies of eating disorders in female children and adolescents, from 7 to 17 years old. This study was carried out with the participation of 174 female children and adolescents, from 8 to 17 years old, recruited from three groups: (1)48 girls with eating disorders; (2) 55 clinical controls – 21 in treatment for unipolar depression, 14 for obsessive compulsive disorder and 20 for gastrointestinal disease – and (3) 71 community controls. One of the parents of each girl was also interviewed with the measure. Subjects were recruited from the three groups to assess the discriminant validity of the measure concerning its ability in discriminate girls with eating disorders from other mimicking psychiatric or physic disorders. The diagnosis of the presence or not of eating disorder in each subject – anorexia, bulimia nervosa and partial syndromes – was made using three different independent methods – (1) gold standard diagnosis, based on DSM-IV and ICD-10, assigned through free clinical interview of the parent and the girl together, made by a child and adolescent psychiatrist specialized in eating disorders, blind to the group of origin of the girl; (2) preliminary computer diagnosis, generated by a specific algorithm based on ICD-0 and the DSM-IV, using the structured information collected with the measure and (3) final DAWBA diagnosis, established by a trained specialist, based on DSM-IV and ICD-10, through the careful review of the information on the reports provided by the DAWBA software, containing the abstracts of the information collected by the measure. The concurrent validity of the DAWBA diagnoses (computer preliminary and final) was assessed through the comparison with the gold standard. The test-retest reliability was assessed reassessing 55 subjects (7 with eating disorders, 20 clinical controls and 28 community controls) with the measure two or three weeks after the first assessment. The DAWBA interviewers were blind (both in test and retest) for the origin group of the subject. Internal consistency (Crombach Alpha), best cutoffs in the screening questions, sensibility and specificity were assessed. There was a significant difference in mean age between the eating disorder (mean = 16 years) and clinical control (mean = 14,5 years) groups. For the detection of any eating disorder according the DSM-IV and ICD-10, the final DAWBA diagnosis presented sensibility of 100% and specificity of 94%. There was good test-retest agreement (Kappa = 0,81) and good internal consistency in the screening questions, being the Crombach Alpha of 0,76 in the girls interview and 0,81 in the parent interview. The best cutoffs on the screening questions were two and three, noting that for a cutoff of three the sensibility was 89,8% in both interviews (girls and parents) and the specificity was 85,6% for the girls interview and 85,5% for the parent interview. The significant difference in mean age between the eating disorder and clinical control groups, not including children with eating disorders younger than 11 years old and the absence of comparisons of social economic variables between groups were limitations of this study. In summary, the present study shows that The Eating Disorders Section of the DAWBA has good validity and reliability for the screening and diagnosis of female children and adolescents with eating disorders and has applicability both in clinical and community settings.

Bakgrund: Anorexia Nervosa (AN) är en allvarlig psykisk sjukdom som drabbar främst unga kvinnor. AN innebär att personerna har en rädsla för viktuppgång och en skev kroppsuppfattning. Rädslan för viktuppgång resulterar till en allvarlig viktminskning. Den skeva kroppsuppfattningen kan påverkas av samhällets skönhetsideal. Sjukdomen påverkar inte bara den drabbade utan hela familjen drabbas. Sjuksköterskan bör skapa en god vårdrelation till personer med AN eftersom det är betydelsefullt för den fortsatta vården. Syfte: Syftet med studien var att belysa unga kvinnors upplevelse av att leva med Anorexia Nervosa. Metod: En kvalitativ litteraturstudie med induktiv ansats. Data analyserades utifrån en manifest innehållsanalys som baseras på fem självbiografier. Resultat: Unga kvinnors upplevelser av att leva med AN innebar ett stort lidande. Livsvärlden förändrades samtidigt eftersom de kände en ökad livskraft med hjälp från vårdpersonal och familjen. Resultatet presenteras i tre kategorier och tillhörande underkategorier. Kategorierna är: Leva med röstens kommentarer, Sjukdomen påverkar ständigt och Bevara kontrollen i sjukdomen. Slutsats: Personer med AN finner det jobbigt att förlora sitt självbestämmande till sjukdomen och andra vilket kan medföra ett ökat lidande. Det är viktigt att sjuksköterskan skapar tillit hos de unga kvinnorna med AN i syfte att öka livskraften för att bli fri från sjukdomen.

Background: It is posited that attachment difficulties in infancy may result in reduced mentalisation capacity (understanding self and others’ subjective thoughts/mental processes), leading to potentially deleterious psychopathological outcomes such as eating disorders. The exact nature of the relationship between mentalisation and eating disorders/disordered eating is unclear however. Objectives: A systemic review examined whether those with Anorexia Nervosa (AN) experience mentalisation deficits compared to those without EDs. An empirical study, examining the link between mentalisation and disordered eating (DE) in an adolescent sample, was conducted to assess whether borderline trait features mediated the relationship between the two constructs. Method: A systematic search of 6 databases was conducted, and articles were assessed against predetermined inclusion/exclusion criteria. Included articles were assessed against 14 quality criteria and study findings were reported. For the empirical study, 162 participants aged 12-18 completed a questionnaire pack including mentalisation, borderline traits, impulsivity, emotion dysregulation and depression scales, and sociodemographic questions. Results: Results from 10 articles indicated those with AN may experience subtle mentalisation deficits, particularly in recognising negative emotions in others. Mentalisation ability may also vary according to interpersonal context. Mediation analyses found mentalisation ability exerted a significant effect on DE indirectly through borderline trait features, and partially through emotion dysregulation, but not impulsivity. Conclusion: More robust empirical studies are required in order to assess the relationship between mentalisation and AN. Findings regarding the link between mentalisation, borderline traits and DE may further aid psychological assessment/treatment. Therapies where the main focus is improving mentalisation capacity may be useful.