Le funzioni metacognitive nei pazienti con disturbi del comportamento alimentare. Uno studio sul trattamento di gruppo psicodinamico

There is an emerging empirical evidence that patients with eating disorders have severe metacognitive concerns, i.e. ability to reflect on mental states. This single-case study aims to explore the relationship between limited metacognition and eating symptoms in six patients who attended a long-term group treatment. This study also aims at analysing the change of patients metacognition over the course of treatment. All the patients were female, with a mean age of 17 years. Three patients have a diagnosis of anorexia nervosa, and three have a diagnosis of bulimia nervosa. The group treatment was delivered in a outpatient clinic of the hospital of Acireale (CT). The SVaM (Carcione et al., 1997) was used to measure metacognition of patients, by analysing the transcripts of group sessions. The preliminary findings, which included the first year of the group treatment (N=27 group sessions) showed that metacognitive dysfunctions more evident concern Understanding One's Own Mind and Mastery. The first concerns abilities to reflect on the own mental states; the second concerns ability of regulation and control. Data show that patients don't present failures in the Understanding Other's Minds. The study has not identified meaningful differences between anorexic patients and bulimic patients.