EDISA Background

Study Background

Supportive peer relationships are important protective buffers in maintaining good mental health. Forming supportive friendships during adolescence is considered a developmental milestone. A high number of young people who present at eating disorder clinics have social difficulties, such as problems forming friendships, understanding other peoples' points of view, feeling socially anxious, regulating mood, and interpreting the actions of friends negatively. 

In eating disorder services, social difficulties are not formally assessed unless severe but, at the start of treatment in community eating disorder clinics, young patients complete, as standard, The Strengths & Difficulties Questionnaire and the Revised Children's Anxiety & Depression Scale that ask detailed questions about social relationships, mood and social anxiety. They also complete a questionnaire about their disordered eating at the start of treatment, which they fill in again at the end of treatment to assess potential change. However, it is not known whether and to what extent the answers to these questions predict clinical outcomes, such as weight gain or disordered eating symptoms.  This study attempts to answer some of these questions.