Social Cognition in Child and Adolescents with Anorexia Nervosa

Abstract

Social cognition represents the mental processes of social interaction between oneself and others. In recent years, the interest in social cognition skills has increased in cases with eating disorders. Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder that is associated with the multiple factors in etiology. Treatment of anorexia nervosa is still controversial. The youths diagnosed with anorexia nervosa are known to be as the most difficult group in eating disorders for building therapeutic relations. Studies, mostly suggests that there are difficulties in social cognitive functions in patients with anorexia nervosa. However, there are studies that reported different results. It seems that, the majority of studies which evaluate the social cognitive functions in patients with anorexia nervosa, are carried out with the adult age group. There are limited number of studies in child and adolescent age group. The purpose of this paper was to examinate the studies of social cognitive skills in children and adolescents diagnosed with anorexia nervosa and present the general characteristics. [Psikiyatride Guncel Yaklasimlar - Current Approaches in Psychiatry 2015; 7(2): 178-189]

Keywords

• Anorexia nervosa
• child
• empathy
• social cognition