Expanding the concept of motivation to change: The content of patients' wish to recover from anorexia nervosa

OBJECTIVE:: Motivational approaches to anorexia nervosa (AN) have mainly concerned motivational quality and quantity. We investigated the content of patients' wish to recover. METHOD:: Eighteen women, aged 18-39, with AN were interviewed in depth using a phenomenological study design. Interview...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The International journal of eating disorders 2008-11, Vol.41 (7), p.635-642
Main Authors: Nordbø, Ragnfrid H.S, Gulliksen, Kjersti S, Espeset, Ester M.S, Skårderud, Finn, Geller, Josie, Holte, Arne
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Adult and adolescent clinical studies
Anorexia
Anorexia nervosa
Anorexia Nervosa - psychology
Anorexia Nervosa - rehabilitation
Awareness
behavior change
Biological and medical sciences
body image
Eating behavior disorders
eating disorder
Eating disorders
emotions
experience
Female
Health behavior
Humans
Intention
Medical sciences
Motivation
Narration
Norway
objectives
patients
Personal Autonomy
Professional-Patient Relations
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychopathology. Psychiatry
qualitative
recovery
Self Concept
self-efficacy
self-esteem
Studies
treatment
women
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Summary:OBJECTIVE:: Motivational approaches to anorexia nervosa (AN) have mainly concerned motivational quality and quantity. We investigated the content of patients' wish to recover. METHOD:: Eighteen women, aged 18-39, with AN were interviewed in depth using a phenomenological study design. Interviews were tape-recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using the QSR-N*Vivo software program. RESULTS:: Four motivational content areas characterized informants' wishes to recover: "Sense of vitality" (e.g., joy, concentration, spontaneity, energy); "Sense of autonomy" (e.g., choosing to recover, new methods of mastery, self-determination); "Sense of insight" (e.g., awareness, seeing nuances, limitation of goals, self-knowledge); and "Negative consequences" (e.g., loss of future, costs to own children, feeling sick or thin, social costs, physical costs). CONCLUSION:: Our sample of AN patients' motivation to recover may be described using three dimensions: content, quality, and quantity, and may also include motives with no behavioral intention. Sustained therapeutic success may rest upon the therapist's ability to identify and ally with the patient's motives to recover. © 2008 by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Eat Disord 2008
ISSN:0276-3478
1098-108X
DOI:10.1002/eat.20547