Treatment outcome in Eating disorder debut cases during COVID-19 lockdown: A contrast between pre pandemic and pandemic cases
Lucero Munguía^1,2,3, Isabel Baenas-Soto^1,2,3,4, Roser Granero-Pérez^1,2,3,5, Noriaki Ohsako^3,6, Anahí Gaspar-Pérez^1,2,3,4, Magda Rosinska^2,3, Isabel Sánchez-Díaz^2,3, Jessica Jiménez-Del Toro^2,3, Jessica Sánchez-González^2,3, Georgios Paslakis⁷, Susana Jiménez-Murcia^1,2,3,8, Fernando Fernández-Aranda^1,2,3,8
1CIBER Fisiopatología Obesidad y Nutrición (CIBERobn), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Barcelona, Spain/²Clinical Psychology Unit, University Hospital of Bellvitge, Barcelona, Spain/³Psychoneurobiology of Eating and Addictive Behaviors Group, Neurosciences Program, Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL), Barcelona, Spain/⁴Doctorate in Medicine and Translational Research Programme, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain/⁵Department of Psychobiology and Methodology, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain/⁶Department of Psychiatry, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University, Chiba, Japan/⁷Medical Faculty, University Clinic for Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Ruhr-University Bochum, Luebbecke, Germany/⁸Department of Clinical Sciences, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Barcelona,, Barcelona, Spain

Background: During the COVID-19 pandemic an increase of eating disorder (ED) new cases occurred. The present study aims: 1) to compare clinical features of ED patients with onset during the COVID-19 lockdown (pandemic cohort), with ED patients whose onset was previous (pre-pandemic cohort) and, 2) to compare therapy response between these two groups. Methods: The sample consisted of 115 female adult ED patients. N=37 new ED cases, diagnosed during pandemic (May 2020-May 2021) constituted the pandemic cohort; these patients do not have any previous history of ED. N=77 ED cases diagnosed before the COVID-19 pandemic breakout (before March 2020) constituted the pre-pandemic cohort. All ED subtypes were included in each group. Treatment outcome and several clinical variables were assessed. Results: Participants in the pandemic cohort were older, showed lower impulsivity and shorter duration of the ED disorder, as well as better emotional regulation than pre-pandemic cohort. No differences were found in the baseline general psychopathology and eating severity among the groups. After the therapy, pandemic cohort patients presented a better treatment outcome than pre-pandemic cohort. Conclusions: A different clinical profile was found between groups, aspects that may have influence the treatment outcome, and could be considered when addressing ED in highly stressful contexts.

Category
Treatment/Prevention