Pinpointing core and pathway symptoms among sleep disturbance, anxiety, worry, and eating disorder symptoms in anorexia nervosa and atypical anorexia nervosa

Background: Sleep, anxiety, and worry are strongly related to psychiatric illness and in particular to eating disorder (ED) symptoms. However, it is unclear how these specific sleep and anxiety symptoms are interrelated with anorexia nervosa (AN) pathology. Methods: We utilized network analysis to test our theoretically-based conceptual model, by identifying core features and illness (i.e., bridge) pathways among sleep disturbance, anxiety, worry, and ED symptoms in 267 participants with a diagnosis of AN or atypical AN. Results: The following core symptoms were identified: shape judgement, restriction, and feeling tired. The strongest bridge symptoms included worry, feeling tired, loss of energy, and physical anxiety. Worry was connected positively to fasting, fear of gaining weight or becoming fat, loss of energy, and feeling tired, and negatively to changes in sleeping patterns. Feeling tired was connected to restriction, fasting, binge eating, and worry. Loss of energy was connected to loss of control over eating and worry. Physical anxiety was negatively connected to restriction. Conclusions: We identified specific core symptoms and illness pathways supporting our theoretical conceptual model of how ED symptoms, anxiety, worry, and sleep disturbances inter-relate in AN and atypical AN. In particular we found that symptoms associated with sleep and anxiety were central and had strong connections with AN symptoms. In addition to targeting AN symptoms, these data suggest that targeting sleep disturbance, anxiety, and worry could improve treatment for AN.

Automated summary

The study identified specific core symptoms and illness pathways within patients with anorexia nervosa and atypical anorexia nervosa, revealing the interconnection between sleep disturbances, anxiety, worry, and eating disorder symptoms. Symptoms related to sleep and anxiety were found to be central and strongly connected to anorexia nervosa symptoms.