Anorexia Nervosa Essay

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Upon carefully reading Serpell, Treasure, Teasdale, & Sullivan (1999) and Serpell & Treasure (2002) research articles on Anorexia and Bulimia nervosa, I gained a lot of knowledge about the subject on previous research that was done on these two illnesses. Both Anorexia nervosa and Bulimia nervosa can be a very hard disease to live with. Serpell et al. (1999) research study was done to examine anorexics’ attitudes towards anorexia nervosa. Participants in their study was anorexic patients and they were asked to write two letters to their disorder. One letter was to address their disorder as a friend and the other as an enemy (Serpell, Treasure, Teasdale, & Sullivan, 1999). A coding scheme was established using a Grounded theory methodology to group recurrent themes (Serpell, Treasure, Teasdale, & Sullivan, 1999). …show more content…

Results from their research study showed that some benefits of anorexia nervosa included feeling looked after or protected, gaining a sense of control, and feeling special. The consequences of the disorder included constant thoughts about food, feeling taken over, and the damage done to the participant’s personal relationships (Serpell, Treasure, Teasdale, & Sullivan, 1999). Serpell et al. (1999), did a great job providing enough graphs and tables to give their readers a better understanding of their results. They also did a great job including and explaining the anti-disorder code and therapeutic implications. I like how researcher suggested ways in which the enemy letters have potentially important ways to help clinicians motivate their patients in recovery (Serpell, Treasure, Teasdale, & Sullivan, 1999). One critique that I will address about Serpell et al. (1999), is that they did not use a large enough sample

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