The effect of cognitive symptoms in binge eating disorder on depression and self-esteem: a cross-sectional study

PURPOSE

To compare individuals with class II and III obesity with and without binge eating disorder (BED) in terms of sociodemographic characteristics, depressive symptoms, self-esteem, eating behaviors, and cognitive variables thought to be involved in the pathophysiology of the disease.

METHODS

The participants were selected from volunteer patients with body mass index ≥ 35 applying to the Ondokuz Mayıs University Medical Faculty, Turkey, for bariatric surgery between 01.07.2016 and 31.05.2019. The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES), and Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire (EDE-Q) were administered to all participants.

RESULTS

Binge eating disorder (BED) was determined in 95 (34%) of the 278 individuals applying for bariatric surgery. The frequency of previous psychiatric diseases was higher in the BED group than in the non-BED group. BDI, RSES, total EDE-Q, weight concern, shape concern, and eating concern EDE-Q subscale scores were also higher in the BED group. Correlation analysis revealed positive low correlation between depression scores and total EDE-Q scores and all subscales scores, with the exception of restraint. Positive low correlation was determined between decreased self-esteem and body weight and shape concern. At multivariate regression analysis, cognitive variables explained 28.6% of variance in depressive symptoms in the BED group, and 21.5% of variance in self-esteem.

CONCLUSION

The study results showed elevation in cognitive factors in patients with BED compared to the controls. Among these variables, eating and weight concern were shown to be associated with depressive symptoms, while eating concern was linked to self-esteem.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE

Level III, case-control analytic study.

Schizophrenia in Turkish newspapers : retrospective scanning study

The attitude of mass media is a strong determinant for stigmatisation since the majority of the society gets exposed to psychiatric disorders via either written or visual media. In this study we explored to demonstrate the meaning attributed to the word schizophrenia in Turkish written printed media. We screened the online sites of 12 national newspapers which allow word scanning between the dates January 1, 2001 and May 1, 2006. The searched terms appeared in a total of 878 texts. In all twelve newspapers, the terms "Schizophrenia", "Schizophrene", or "Schizophrenic" appeared once every 2.2 days. While a positive referral appeared once in every 12.2 days, a negative referral or metaphoric use was seen once every 3.1 days. Among the 878 texts scanned, in 491(55.9%) the searched terms appeared with reference to the disease and in 387 (44.1%) the searched terms were used metaphorically. Considering the assumption the negative reporting may have a stronger impact than positive reporting, it is possible to suggest that Turkish newspapers are raising stigmatisation. It is meaningful that the name of a disease is used almost with equal frequency as a metaphoric term. In our study, higher rates of metaphoric use observed can be explained with the fact that in Turkey the word Schizophrenia is attributed with strong negative perception.

The attitude of medical students to psychiatric patients and their disorders and the influence of psychiatric study placements in bringing about changes in attitude

The aim of this study was to determine the general attitude of final year medical students towards psychiatric patients and psychiatric disorders and to reveal the influence of psychiatric study experience in changing the behavior and perception of students. The study comprised 172 final year medical students undergoing a period of placement at the Ondokuz Mayis University Medical School Department of Psychiatry who agreed to participate. They were asked to fill in the Opinions about Mental Illness Ideology Scale (OMI) the day before they commenced, on the last day of their placement and three months after completing it. The students reported the highest and lowest scores from the benevolence and social restrictiveness sub-dimensions of the OMI, respectively. The mean authoritarianism score was significantly higher in males than in females. The means of the OMI scores obtained over the three different periods were not statistically different. Medical school psychiatry departments need to develop new curricula to convey scientific information to students and play a pivotal role in developing, implementing and evaluating suitable programs leading to appropriate attitude development.