[Comparison of instruments assessing the readiness to change in patients with anorexia nervosa].

OBJECTIVES

The study compares three instruments assessing the readiness to change in patients suffering from anorexia nervosa, and assesses their relationship to clinical data.

METHODS

Two of the instruments, the "Fragebogen zur Erfassung der eränderungsbereitschaft" (FEVER) and the "Anorexia Nervosa Stages of Change Questionnaire"(ANSOCQ), are questionnaires; the "Readiness and Motivation Interview"(RMI) is a semistructured interview. The sample consisted of 44 anorexia nervosa inpatients.

RESULTS

The data of the three instruments correlate with each other to a medium high degree. Clinical variables such as BMI, bodyweight, and inpatient treatment duration show only a few, and mostly low, correlations. The therapeutic prognoses correlate with the motivation to change to a medium/high degree, whereas low motivation frequently correlates with negative predictions.

CONCLUSIONS

The ambivalence of the anorexia nervosa patients shows up mostly on the RMI, which also displays the highest correlations to the clinical data and to the EDI-2 data.