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Eating disturbances in eating disorders and in high-functioning autism spectrum disorders: a preliminary study

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Abstract

Purpose

The relationship between autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) and eating disorders (EDs) has been widely studied in the last decades. We aimed to directly compare patients with EDs, individuals with high-functioning ASDs (HF-ASDs) and healthy controls (HC) at measures detecting: (1) symptoms of eating disorders, (2) eating disturbances known to be characteristic of autism.

Methods

Thirty-four patients with EDs, 34 individuals with HF-ASDs and 35 HC, all females, completed the eating attitude test (EAT-26) and the Swedish eating assessment for autism spectrum disorders (SWEAA), two self-report questionnaires assessing, respectively, symptoms and concerns characteristic of eating disorders and ASD-related eating disturbances.

Results

At the EAT-26, patients with EDs scored significantly higher than individuals with HF-ASDs, and both of them scored higher than HC (p < 0.05, ηp2 = 0.283). Conversely, at the SWEAA, no differences between individuals with HF-ASDs and patients with EDs emerged (p = 901), but they both scored higher than HC (p < 0.05, ηp2 = 0.247).

Conclusion

Individuals with HF-ASDs did not seem to reach the same level of EDs symptomatology as patients with EDs. Patients with EDs did not seem to present a different amount of autistic-eating behaviours than subjects with HF-ASDs. Patients with EDs and individuals with HF-ASDs scored higher than HC at both scales. Our results give further preliminary evidence of the overlap between autistic traits and EDs symptomatology, and should be taken into account in the definition of a shared model between EDs and ASDs.

Level of evidence

Level II; Evidence obtained from controlled trial without randomization.

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Availability of data and material

Anonymized data will be shared by request from any qualified investigator.

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Funding

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento Di Scienze Della Salute, Università Degli Studi Di Milano, ASST Santi Paolo E Carlo, Presidio San Paolo, via A. di Rudinì, 8, 20100, Milano, Italy

    Veronica Nisticò, Alberto Priori, Orsola Gambini & Benedetta Demartini

  2. Aldo Ravelli Research Center for Neurotechnology and Experimental Brain Therapeutics, Università Degli Studi Di Milano, Milano, Italy

    Veronica Nisticò, Alberto Priori, Orsola Gambini & Benedetta Demartini

  3. Unità Di Psichiatria II, ASST Santi Paolo E Carlo, Presidio San Paolo, Milano, Italy

    Raffaella Faggioli, Sara Bertelli, Orsola Gambini & Benedetta Demartini

  4. III Clinica Neurologica, ASST Santi Paolo E Carlo, Presidio San Paolo, Milano, Italy

    Alberto Priori

Authors
  1. Veronica Nisticò
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  2. Raffaella Faggioli
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  3. Sara Bertelli
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  4. Alberto Priori
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  5. Orsola Gambini
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  6. Benedetta Demartini
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Contributions

VN: conceptualization, data curation, formal analysis, investigation, methodology, roles/writing—original draft. RF: conceptualization, data curation, investigation, methodology, roles/writing—original draft. SB: data curation, investigation, methodology, roles/writing—original draft. AP: formal analysis, project administration, supervision, writing—review and editing. OG: formal analysis, project administration, supervision, writing—review and editing. BD: conceptualization, formal analysis, investigation, project administration supervision, writing—review and editing.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Benedetta Demartini.

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Authors have no conflict of interests to declare.

Ethical approval

The study was approved and registered by the ethics committee of ASST Santi Paolo e Carlo, Milan, Italy.

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All participants gave their written informed consent for the study.

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Nisticò, V., Faggioli, R., Bertelli, S. et al. Eating disturbances in eating disorders and in high-functioning autism spectrum disorders: a preliminary study. Eat Weight Disord 27, 1555–1561 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40519-021-01225-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40519-021-01225-1

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