Skip to main content
Log in

Living with someone with an eating disorder: factors affecting the caregivers’ burden

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Eating and Weight Disorders - Studies on Anorexia, Bulimia and Obesity Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

We focused on carers of subjects suffering from eating disorders (ED), and studied the characteristics that mostly expose them to high levels of stress, anxiety, depression and expressed emotion, favoring the accommodation of the family system to the cared person. We administered the accommodation and enabling scale for eating disorders (AESED) questionnaire, the family questionnaire (FQ) and the depression, anxiety and stress scale (DASS-21) questionnaire to 97 carers of 62 ED patients, and investigated the carer’s characteristics associated with the scores in the three questionnaires. A personal history of ED, being the primary carer, and caring for a person with a diagnosis of anorexia nervosa are the characteristics that contribute most to aggravate the carers’ burden in terms of stress, anxiety, depression, accommodation and enabling. Our findings may help doctors to provide effective support to caregivers and eventually improve the treatment of subjects with ED.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Anastasiadou D, Medina-Pradas C, Sepulveda AR, Treasure J (2014) A systematic review of family caregiving in eating disorders. Eat Behav 15(3):464–477. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eatbeh.2014.06.001

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Goddard E, Macdonald P, Sepulveda AR, Naumann U, Landau S, Schmidt U, Treasure J (2011) Cognitive interpersonal maintenance model of eating disorders: intervention for carers. Br J Psychiatry 199:225–231. https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.bp.110.088401

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Treasure J, Schmidt U (2013) The cognitive-interpersonal maintenance model of anorexia nervosa revisited: a summary of the evidence for cognitive, socio-emotional and interpersonal predisposing and perpetuating factors. J Eat Disord 1:13. https://doi.org/10.1186/2050-2974-1-13

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  4. NICE, National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health (2014) Eating disorders: core interventions in the treatment and management of anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and related eating disorders. Number CG9. The British Psychological Society London

  5. Hay P, Chinn D et al (2014) Royal Australian and New Zealand college of psychiatrists clinical practice guidelines for the treatment of eating disorders. Aust N Z J Psychiatry 48(11):1–62. https://doi.org/10.1176/foc.3.4.618 DOI

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Sepúlveda AR, Graell M, Berbel E, Anastasiadou D, Botella J, Carrobles JA et al (2012) Factors associated with emotional well-being in primary and secondary caregivers of patients with eating disorders. Eur Eat Disord Rev 20(l):e78–84. https://doi.org/10.1002/erv.1118

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Vall E, Wade TD (2015) Predictors of treatment outcome in individuals with eating disorders: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Int J Eat Disord 7:946–971. https://doi.org/10.1002/eat.22411

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Schmidt U, Treasure J (2006) Anorexia nervosa: valued and visible. A cognitive-interpersonal maintenance model and its implications for research and practice. Br J Clin Psychol 45:343–366

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Treasure J, Sepulveda AR, Macdonald P, Lopez C, Zabala MJ, Kyriacou O et al (2008) Interpersonal maintaining factors in eating disorder: skill sharing interventions for carers. Int J Child Adolesc Health l(4):33 l-8

  10. Treasure J, Rhind C, Macdonald P, Todd G (2015) Collaborative care: the new maudsley model. Eat Disord 23:366–376. https://doi.org/10.1080/10640266.2015.1044351

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Treasure J et al (2015) Collaborative care: the new maudsley model. Eat Disord 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1080/10640266.2015.1044351

  12. Zabala MJ, Macdonald P, Treasure J (2009) Appraisal of caregiving burden expressed emotion and psychological distress in families of people with eating disorders: a systematic review. Eur Eat Disord Rev 17(5):338–349. https://doi.org/10.1002/erv.925

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Treasure J, Palazzo Nazar B (2016) Interventions for carers of patients with eating disorders. Curr Psychiatry Rep 18:16. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11920-015-0652-3

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  14. Sepulveda AR, Kyriacou O, Treasure J (2009) Development and validation of the accommodation and enabling scale for eating disorders (AESED) for caregivers in eating disorders. BMC Health Serv Res 9:171. https://doi.org/10.1186/1472-6963-9-171

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  15. Wiedemann et al (2002) The Family Questionnaire: development and validation of a new self-report scale for assessing expressed emotion. Psychiatry Res 109(3):265–279

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Lovibond SH, Lovibond PF (1995) Manual for the depression anxiety stress scales (DASS). Psychology Foundation Monograph

  17. Bottesi G, Ghisi M, Altoè G, Conforti E, Melli G, Sica C (2015) The Italian version of the depression anxiety stress scale-21: factor structure and psychometric properties on community and clinical samples. Compr Psychiatry 60:170–181. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.comppsych.2015.04.005

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  18. Macdonald P, Rhind C, Hibbs R, Goddard E, Raenker S, Todd G, Schmidt U, Treasure J (2014) Carers’ assessment, skills and information sharing (CASIS) trial: a qualitative study of the experiential perspective of caregivers and patients. J Eur Eat Disord Rev 22:430–438. https://doi.org/10.1002/erv.2320

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Gonzalez N, Padierna A et al (2012) Predictors of change in perceived burden among caregivers of patients with eating disorders. J Affective Disorders 139(3) 273–282. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2012.02.013

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Treasure J, Smith G, Crane A (2017) Skills-based caring for a loved one with an eating disorder, Routledge

  21. Graap H, Bleich S, Herbst F, Trostmann Y, Wancata J, de Zwaan M (2008) The needs of carers of patients with anorexìa and bulimia nervosa. Europ Eat Disord Rev 16:21–29. https://doi.org/10.1002/erv.804

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Hibbs R, Rhind C, Leppanen J, Treasure J (2014) Interventions for caregivers of someone with an eating disorder: a meta-analysis. Int I Eating Disord. https://doi.org/10.1002/cat.22298

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Maria Cristina Stefanini.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

All Authors declare they have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in this study.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Stefanini, M.C., Troiani, M.R., Caselli, M. et al. Living with someone with an eating disorder: factors affecting the caregivers’ burden. Eat Weight Disord 24, 1209–1214 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40519-018-0480-7

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40519-018-0480-7

Keywords

Navigation