Eating disorders are complex illnesses with low remission rates and high mortality risks (Miskovic-Wheatley et al., 2023). One way to improve outcomes is through the use of regular progress monitoring to assess symptom change throughout treatment, as this allows for timely detection of non-response to treatment and subsequent adjustment and individualisation of interventions (Espel-Huynh et al., 2020).
That’s why at NovoPsych, we’re expanding our assessment library to provide you with a comprehensive suite of tools, most recently adding the Eating Disorder-15 (ED-15) to help clinicians monitor changes in eating disorder symptomatology. I hope you find this addition useful, as well as our existing body image, eating and related measures summarised below:
To familiarise yourself with these assessments, we’d recommend self-administering them before you give them to a real client. All NovoPsych subscriptions include access to these measures. We hope you find them useful!
Yours sincerely,
Ben
The Eating Disorder-15 (ED-15; Tatham et al., 2015) is a 15-item self-report scale designed to measure session-by-session change in eating disorder attitudes and behaviours. The scale measures the frequency of eating-disordered behaviours in adults and adolescents (age 15 +), with two subscales:
The ED-15 can be helpful in your clinical practice as a brief assessment tool for monitoring changes in eating disorder symptomatology throughout treatment. Session-by-session monitoring of eating disorder symptoms and behaviours during therapy provides clients and clinicians with an evidence-based feedback tool to track treatment outcomes and therapeutic gains/deterioration.
Join internationally recognised researcher and clinician Professor Tracey Wade for a practical and evidence-based professional development focused on the assessment and treatment of eating disorders.
Designed for psychologists, paediatricians, dietitians, psychiatrists, counsellors, and other mental health professionals, this session will explore what the research tells us about effective approaches to both assessment and treatment. Professor Wade will offer guidance on maximising good outcomes by applying evidence-based strategies in clinical settings.
A key focus will be on the ED-15, a brief and effective tool for sessional outcome monitoring in eating disorder treatment. Attendees will gain practical insights into integrating this measure to support better outcomes.
The Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-26; Garner et al., 1982) is a 26-item, self-report tool assessing general eating behaviour in adolescents (13+) and adults.
The EAT-26 is used to identify the presence of “eating disorder risk” based on attitudes, feelings and behaviours related to eating, with higher scores considered indicative of a greater risk of an eating disorder.
The EAT-26 has three subscales, providing the clinician with helpful details about the specific focus of disordered eating:
Five additional questions assess for risky behaviour and are not included in the calculation of the total or subscale scores.
The EAT-26 can aid in the screening and diagnosis of eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder. It has also been validated in samples at high risk of eating problems such as female athletes and fashion models.
The Appearance Anxiety Inventory (AAI; Veale et al., 2014) is a 10-question self-report scale that measures the cognitive and behavioural aspects of body image anxiety in general, and body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) in particular. Appropriate for use with adults and adolescents (age 13 +), the brief nature of the AAI can provide a quick snapshot of symptom severity to assist in the initial assessment and to monitor treatment progress over time.
The AAI has three subscales that represent typical symptom clusters among people with BDD:
The Clinical Impairment Assessment Questionnaire (CIA) is a 16-item self-report measure of the severity of psychosocial impairment due to eating disorder features over the past 28 days (Bohn & Fairburn, 2008). The CIA measures functional impairment in domains of life that are typically affected by an eating disorder and has been normed in adults 17-65 years of age.
Three sub-scales are computed, reflecting different areas of impairment that can result from eating disorders:
The CIA can be a helpful addition to a holistic assessment protocol in your clinical practice, as it provides a simple indication of the severity of a client’s psychosocial impairment secondary to eating disorder features. The CIA is intended to assist in the clinical assessment of patients both before and after treatment for eating disorders (Bohn et al, 2008).
The Children’s Eating Attitudes Test (ChEAT; Maloney et al., 1988) is a 26-item questionnaire used to assess eating attitudes and disordered eating behaviours in children aged 8 to 15. For younger children, it is administered by orally reading items to the child, while adolescents can self-report responses. It is a modified version of the Eating Attitudes Test (Garner & Garfinkle, 1979).
The ChEAT has four subscales, providing the clinician with helpful details about the specific focus of disordered eating:
The ChEAT can be used to screen for children at risk of developing an eating disorder and as part of a more comprehensive diagnostic assessment.
Given the low rates of eating disorder detection, significant unmet treatment need, and associated disease burden, it is important for clinicians to apply a range of specialised measures for screening and early detection of eating and body image difficulties (Bryant et al., 2022) as well as tools for monitoring symptom severity, risk and treatment progress over time, to enhance client outcomes (Espel-Huynh et al., 2020).
With a specialised suite of tools for assessing eating and body image concerns, psychological evaluations can go beyond screening and diagnosis to help clinicians identify relevant etiological mechanisms, conceptualisation detail and intervention targets. Understanding the psychological, emotional and behavioural details of each client’s presentation helps clinicians to tailor treatments to individual needs.
Clinicians might also find it helpful to use specific tools to assess for features commonly associated with eating disorders, such as perfectionism or difficulties with emotion regulation, which you can learn more about by exploring our extensive test library.
We hope that the above measures will provide you with a toolbox capable of ensuring that assessments are thorough and sensitive to the complex nature of eating disorders and body image issues experienced by your clients.
If you know any professionals that might be interested in these scales, please forward them this email! We’re constantly adding assessments to the NovoPsych test library. To view over 150 of the current psychometric tools available you can visit our website: https://NovoPsych.
Warm regards,
Dr Ben Buchanan
Psychologist
NovoPsych Co-founder
[email protected]
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