Compulsive Exercise in Adolescents with Anorexia Nervosa

Abstract

The current thesis aimed to contribute to the understanding of the role and overall management of compulsive exercise in adolescents. The first aim was to systematically review the existing research that has studied the prevalence and psychopathological correlates of compulsive exercise in adolescents with eating disorders, which highlighted the limited research within this area. To contribute to the developmental of a clinical profile of compulsive exercise in adolescents with Anorexia Nervosa (AN), a second study was conducted to explore associations between compulsive exercise and both eating and general psychopathology in 60 adolescent inpatients with AN. Results revealed that the avoidance aspect of compulsive exercise was associated with elevated scores on measures of eating disorder and general psychopathology, whereas the mood improvement value of exercise did not reflect such trends. In aim of furthering our understanding of the mood regulatory role of exercise and moving towards examining possible means of managing compulsive exercise, an observational study was then conducted with the same clinical sample. This third study aimed to explore whether supervised exercise produced acute psychological benefits for adolescent inpatients receiving treatment for AN. Promising acute psychological benefits were found from participation in the supervised exercise program. Taken together, such research emphasized the need for the development of treatment guidelines that target the complexities of compulsive exercise in adolescents with AN. In the absence of empirical evidence, a final study was conducted that used the Delphi methodology to explore and establish expert clinical consensus on how to manage compulsive exercise in this vulnerable population. These findings serve as preliminary clinical practice guidelines, and the research project as a whole highlights the complex nature of compulsive exercise in AN that requires continued research and clinical efforts.