gms | German Medical Science

Introduction: Neuropsychological deficits including memory impairment are common in patients with anorexia nervosa restrictive subtype (AN-R). Rigid thinking, a key feature of AN-R, seems to be associated with deficits in working memory functions. It is hypothesized that both factors contribute to the maintenance of the illness. Thus, general working memory improvement may have favorable effects on overall clinical outcome. This study will assess the efficacy of a computerized intervention tool (BrainStim) targeted on working memory in patients with AN-R.

Methods: Using the RavelloProfile (RP) and additional tests to assess working memory functioning (Digit span and Corsi blocks, N-back (2-, 3-back) and VLMT) cognitive performance will be examined before and after the cognitive intervention. A 6 months follow-up will be applied to investigate stability of effects on working memory functioning over time. The BrainStim training procedure will last 4 weeks with 16 sessions of 45 minutes duration.

Results: Data collection is still ongoing. So far we tested 14 women with AN-R, 7 in the training group and 7 without training. Almost all subjects improved significantly over time during training indicating a strong learning effect. This effect was transferred into neuropsychological outcomes after training including improvement on the Y-BOCS obsession subscale, STAI trait, 2-back accuracy, Rey Delayed Recall, and Tower of London test. Five out of these 7 AN-R were examined 6 months later and showed improved outcomes on the EDE-Q restraint subscale, Y-BOCS obsession and compulsive subscale, and the Corsi Blocks backward.

Conclusion: Since all participants considerably improved during training and in several neuropsychological outcomes, the efficacy of the treatment could be verified. There seems to be continuous and steady changes after such a cognitive intervention that may have an additional favorable effect on the general therapeutic setting.