OBJECTIVES:

People with anorexia nervosa have a broad spread of symptoms including disturbances in perception, cognition, emotions and behaviour. The aim of this study was to examine tests of executive function (in particular, perceptual and cognitive set shifting tasks) in patients with a current or past diagnosis of anorexia nervosa (AN).

METHOD:

30 AN patients, 16 subjects recovered from anorexia nervosa (ANR) and 23 healthy controls were examined using tests of executive function (initiation tasks and perceptual and cognitive set shifting).

RESULTS:

The AN and ANR subjects had significantly higher perceptual and cognitive set shifting scores than the controls.

CONCLUSIONS:

Impaired executive function in terms of set shifting tasks could represent a vulnerability factor for AN.