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In the publication of this article [1], there is an error with an abbreviation. The last sentence of the results paragraph in the abstract reads as follows: “While measures of WE related more to weight gain and general ED Psychopathology, indices including lowest weight were stronger predictors of changes in slimness ideal and inappropriate compensatory behaviors.” Instead of WE (weight elevation), however, the abbreviation should say WS (weight suppression). This has now been included in this correction article.

Young adults are increasingly exposed to social media and their image/video-based activities. They use these platforms to share images, videos and advice in different fields like food and nutrition with: recipe ideas, nutritional opinions or specific diets. Along with the rise of digital technologies, the prevalence of eating disorders in young adults continues to grow. The present study analyzes the psychological and eating processes through which exposure to social media may lead to the development of food craving and problematic eating behaviors. A total of 103 young adult men (n = 15) and women (n = 88) answered questionnaires measuring their impulsivity (Barratt Impulsiveness Scale), eating habits (Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire), food craving (Food Cravings Questionnaire-Trait-reduced), and time exposure to social media. The results showed two significant serial mediations. We found a correlational link between time exposure to social media and food craving scores. This positive relation is indirectly mediated by cognitive impulsivity. We also found a positive correlation between cognitive impulsivity and food craving scores that was mediated by cognitive restraint. A better understanding of the existing links between social media, food craving and eating behaviors such as cognitive restraint could help researchers and clinicians to better guide young adults in their use and appropriation of social media food contents. Young adults are increasingly using social media to share images, videos and opinions on a wide range of areas including food. Young people discuss recipes tips, nutritional opinions or specific diet advice. Online platforms expose young people to a set of contradictory data, often generalist, and non-individualized advice that can create the feeling of being overwhelmed by information. This study aimed to understand the potential impact of this increasingly frequent exposure to social media on eating behaviors of young adults. The results showed that longer exposure times to social media were indirectly linked to an irrepressible urge to eat via increased impulsivity. High impulsivity scores were also indirectly related to food craving via food restriction. A better understanding of the links between social media, food craving and eating behaviors could help researchers and clinicians to better guide young adults in their use and appropriation of social media food contents. By knowing more precisely the processes at work behind exposure to social media, it can become possible to undertake awareness actions in order to prevent the development of subsequent eating issues.

Although data suggest that the sense of “loss of control” (LOC) is the most salient aspect of binge eating, the definition of LOC varies widely across eating disorder assessments. The WHO ICD-11 diagnostic guidelines for binge eating do not require an objectively large amount of food, which makes accurate LOC diagnosis even more critical. However, it can be especially challenging to assess LOC in the context of elevated weight status and in the absence of compensatory behaviors. This ICD-11 field sub-study examined how descriptions of subjective experience during distressing eating episodes, in combination with different eating episode sizes, influence diagnoses of binge-eating disorder (BED). Mental health professionals with eating disorder expertise from WHO’s Global Clinical Practice Network (N = 192) participated in English, Japanese, and Spanish. Participants were asked to select the correct diagnosis for two randomly assigned case vignettes and to rate the clinical importance and ease of use of each BED diagnostic guideline. The presence of LOC interacted with episode size to predict whether a correct diagnostic conclusion was reached. If the amount consumed during a typical distressing eating episode was only subjectively large compared to objectively large, clinicians were 23.1 times more likely to miss BED than to correctly diagnose it, and they were 9.7 times more likely to incorrectly diagnose something else than to correctly diagnose BED. In addition, clinicians were 10.8 times more likely to make a false positive diagnosis of BED when no LOC was described if the episode was objectively large. Descriptions of LOC that were reliably associated with correct diagnoses across episodes sizes included two that are similar to those already included in proposed ICD-11 guidelines and a third that is not. This third description of LOC focuses on giving up attempts to control eating because perceived overeating feels inevitable. Results highlight the importance of detailed clarification of the LOC construct in future guidelines. Explicitly distinguishing LOC from distressing and mindless overeating could help promote consistent and accurate diagnosis of BED versus another or no eating disorder.

Rock climbing is an antigravitational sport in which a low body weight may intuitively seem beneficial. A small number of studies have found an increased prevalence of disordered eating among adolescent and adult climbers. However, to date there has been no qualitative research into the attitudes towards disordered eating and body image in the rock climbing community. This explorative study employed a netnographic approach with the aim of understanding how topics related to food, dieting, and disordered eating in the climbing community are addressed in online conversations. Discussion forums on nine major climbing websites as well as three climbing-related forums on the online community Reddit were searched for posts and comments related to the research question. The collected data were then assessed through thematic analysis, generating a number of themes and subthemes. Five overarching themes, labelled “Is there a problem?”, “Subjective experiences”, “Why and how is weight an issue?”, “The importance of context”, and “What can be done?”, were identified among the forum posts. Most forum users acknowledge that eating disorders are indeed a problem relevant to the climbing community, although a significant minority disagrees. While the assumed benefits of a low weight are clearly a dominant idea among climbers, weight may have become less important over time. Forum users also attest to ways in which climbing may in fact be helpful in fostering a positive body image, such as highlighting performance over aesthetics or emphasizing wholesome community values. This study demonstrates that the topic of disordered eating and negative body image is far from a blind spot or a “dark secret” within the rock climbing community, as is sometimes claimed. An undue focus on low body weight among climbers must be balanced by proper nutritional advice and healthy role models, not least for young climbers who may feel pressured to lose weight as a quick but short-sighted way to boost performance. Clinicians should be aware of the prevailing ‘weight talk’ in the climbing community and be attentive to negative body image and disordered eating in their patients. This study presents an analysis of content related to eating disorders in a number of online discussion forums dedicated to rock climbing. The findings show that the topic of disordered eating and negative body image is far from a blind spot or a “dark secret” within the climbing community, as is sometimes claimed. There is a rich ongoing conversation among climbers on topics related to eating habits, where most forum users acknowledge that eating disorders are indeed a problem relevant to the climbing community. While the assumed benefits of a low weight are clearly a dominant idea among climbers, weight may have become less important over time as climbing has evolved as a sports discipline. Forum users also attest to ways in which climbing may in fact be helpful in fostering a positive body image, such as highlighting performance over aesthetics or emphasizing wholesome community values. Within the climbing community, an undue focus on low body weight must be balanced by proper nutritional advice and healthy role models, not least for young climbers who may feel pressured to lose weight as a quick but short-sighted way to boost performance.

This case report discusses the presentation and treatment of a nine-year-old female with a history of significant weight loss and food refusal using a combined approach of Family-Based Treatment (FBT) and the Unified Protocol for Transdiagnostic Treatment of Emotional Disorders in Children (UP-C). The patient was diagnosed with avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID), separation anxiety disorder, and a specific phobia of choking, and subsequently treated with a modified version of FBT, in conjunction with the UP-C. At the end of treatment, improvements were seen in the patient’s weight and willingness to eat a full range of foods. Decreases in anxiety regarding eating/choking, fears of food being contaminated with gluten, and fears of eating while being away from parents were also observed. These findings highlight promising results from this combined treatment approach, referred to as FBT + UP for ARFID. Further research is needed to evaluate the use of this treatment in patients presenting with a variety of ARFID symptoms.

Recent research suggests that anhedonia, or the inability to experience pleasure, is elevated in individuals with eating disorders (EDs). However, past literature has only studied anhedonia in EDs as a unidimensional construct rather than separately examining anticipatory (i.e., prediction of pleasure for a future event) and consummatory (i.e., enjoyment of a present event) pleasure. Given that these subcomponents of pleasure have distinct neurobiological correlates, studying pleasure as a multifaceted construct may yield important insights into the underlying mechanisms of binge eating or food restriction. A sample of 124 women with anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, or other specified feeding or eating disorder and 84 control women (CW) completed self-report measures of anticipatory pleasure, consummatory pleasure, ED symptoms, depression, harm avoidance, and anxiety. Individuals with EDs endorsed significantly lower anticipatory pleasure than CW, but there were no significant group differences in consummatory pleasure. Further, there were no significant differences in self-reported pleasure among ED diagnostic groups. Within the ED sample, anticipatory pleasure but not consummatory pleasure was positively related to binge eating frequency and significantly negatively correlated with cognitive ED symptoms, state and trait anxiety, and harm avoidance. Both anticipatory and consummatory pleasure was negatively associated with depression. The results of the current study suggest that lower pleasure across the ED spectrum may be due to deficits in anticipatory, but not consummatory, pleasure. Future research should continue to explore the behavioral, affective, and neural correlates of anticipatory pleasure in EDs to characterize better how it relates to the onset and maintenance of binge eating and other eating disorder pathology. Anhedonia, or the inability to experience pleasure, has been observed in individuals with eating disorders. Neuroscience research suggests that pleasure may be separated into two distinct components: anticipatory pleasure (how much someone predicts they will enjoy a future experience) and consummatory pleasure (how much someone enjoys a present experience). In the current study, individuals with eating disorders and healthy controls completed questionnaires assessing anticipatory and consummatory pleasure, binge eating, other eating disorder behaviors, depression, anxiety, and constructs associated with reward and punishment sensitivity. The sample with eating disorders reported significantly lower anticipatory but not consummatory pleasure than the control sample. Within the eating disorder sample, greater anticipatory pleasure was also related to higher binge eating frequency but lower depression, anxiety, and weight and shape concerns. These results suggest that anticipatory pleasure may be particularly important in future research on the etiology and treatment of eating disorders.

Understanding motivation to change is a key issue in both the assessment and the treatment of eating disorders. Therefore, sound instruments assessing this construct are of great help to clinicians. Accordingly, the present study analysed the psychometric properties of the Anorexia Nervosa Stages of Change Questionnaire (ANSOCQ), including its relation to coping style and self-esteem. N = 92 adolescents referred to an eating disorders outpatient clinic meeting criteria for anorexia nervosa gave written informed consent to participate in this study and completed the ANSOCQ, the Eating Disorder Inventory, the Eating Attitudes Test, the Body Image Questionnaire, two questionnaires measuring Self-Related Cognitions and the Coping Across Situations Questionnaire. After a treatment period of nine months, clinical anorexia nervosa diagnosis and the body mass index were re-assessed. In addition to exploratory factor analysis, correlational analysis was used to test for the convergent validity of the ANSOCQ and logistic regression analysis was used to test its predictive validity. The ANSOCQ had good psychometric properties. Factor analysis yielded two meaningful factors labelled as ‘weight gain and control’ and ‘attitudes and feelings’. Internal consistencies of the two factors amounted to Cronbach’s alpha = .87 and .76, respectively. Significant correlations with other scales measuring eating disorder psychopathology were indicative of meaningful construct validity. Higher motivation to change was related to higher self-esteem and a more active coping style. Higher (positive) ANSOCQ total scores predicted remission of anorexia nervosa after nine months of treatment. A higher score on ‘attitudes and feelings’ was a protective factor against drop-out from intervention. The ANSOCQ is a clinically useful instrument for measuring motivation to change in adolescents with AN. Two factorial dimensions explain most of the variation. Self-esteem and coping style are relevant additional constructs for the understanding of the motivation to change in anorexia nervosa. NCT02828956 . Retrospectively registered July 2016