Peer-reviewed article
The impact of nasogastric tube feeding on Drive for Thinness and Body Dissatisfaction in children and adolescents with Anorexia Nervosa
Pruccoli J, Pelusi M, Romagnoli G, Parmeggiani A ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study examined how nasogastric tube feeding affects psychological symptoms in children and adolescents with anorexia nervosa during hospital treatment. Researchers followed 53 young patients (average age 15 years), mostly girls, and measured changes in drive for thinness, body dissatisfaction, and weight from admission to discharge. Patients with lower weight at admission showed greater improvements in both psychological symptoms and weight gain during treatment.
Key points
- Both drive for thinness and body dissatisfaction improved more in patients with lower admission BMI
- Higher BMI improvement was predicted by lower admission BMI and younger age
- Anorexia nervosa subtypes, comorbidities, antidepressants, and antipsychotics did not predict outcomes
- All 53 participants were female with mean age 15.1 years
- Findings suggest patients with greater severity of anorexia may benefit most from nasogastric tube feeding
Limitations
This is a small retrospective study of 53 patients from a single setting with no comparison group, so causal conclusions cannot be drawn. The findings need confirmation in larger controlled samples before they can guide clinical practice.
Abstract
Introduction The use of nasogastric-tube feeding (NGT) in the treatment of Anorexia Nervosa (AN) in children and adolescents is recommended by current guidelines. Nonetheless, the literature lacks studies assessing prognostic factors for modifications of AN-specific psychopathology treated with NGT. Objectives To assess potential prognostic affecting improvement in AN-specific psychopathology in children and adolescents hospitalized for AN, treated with NGT. Methods Retrospective study assessing young inpatients with AN, treated with NGT. Considered outcomes (admission vs discharge) were AN-specific psychopathology (Eating Disorder Inventory-3 (EDI-3): Drive for Thinness (DT); Body Dissatisfaction (BD); Eating-Disorders Risk (EDRC)) and body-mass index (BMI). Considered potential predictors were demographics, duration of untreated illness (DUI), severity (admission BMI), diagnoses, early vs late (0-7 vs 8+ days after admission) start of NGT, drugs). Models for specific contributions of predictors related to outcomes were assessed with analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). Results Fifty-three inpatients (F=53, mean age 15.1±2.0 years) were enrolled. Both higher DT (F(1,22)=15.07, p<0.001) and BD improvement (F(1,22)=7.73, p=0.011) were predicted by lower admission BMI. Higher BMI improvement was predicted by lower admission BMI (F(1,47)=10.39, p<0.001) and age (F(1.47)=6.12, p=0.011. AN subtypes, comorbidities, antidepressants, and different antipsychotics did not predict any outcome. Conclusions In this study, greater improvement in AN-specific psychopathology (DT and BD) and weight in patients treated with NGT was predicted by lower admission BMI. These results suggest that young patients with greater severity may highly benefit from NGT. These findings, if confirmed in wider and controlled samples, could help in optimizing the treatment with NGT in young inpatients with AN. Disclosure No significant relationships.
Findings the Hub has extracted
Each claim below is labelled by its type of design and links back to this report.
- Intervention
- Nasogastric tube feeding for nutritional support during hospitalization
- Population
- 53 inpatients with anorexia nervosa (53 female, mean age 15.1±2.0 years)
Key finding
Drive for Thinness improved significantly more in patients with lower admission BMI (F(1,22)=15.07, p<0.001)