Romantic relationships of women diagnosed with eating disorders: a perspective of intimate partner

Abstract

Eating disorders (ED) are subdivided into Anorexia Nervosa (AN), characterized by weight loss resulting from extremely restrictive diet and body image distortion, and Bulimia Nervosa (BN) comprising episodes of binge eating in a short period of time, followed by purging maneuvers. The multifactorial etiology includes familial factors. The association between ED and different patterns of relationships has been explored in a variety of sizes, ranging from attachment to parental figures to the relationships that occur in the social context or, on a more intimate level, the marital domain. We hypothesize that family involvement can increase the motivation of patients to remain in treatment and recover. It is believed that if there is involvement of intimate partners, a similar effect can be obtained, depending on the quality of the relationship. The present study aims to investigate the emotional and / or marital relationship of women diagnosed with ED, in view of their partners / spouses . It is a qualitative, descriptive, exploratory and cross-sectional study. The theoretical framework was proposed by Bulik, Baucom and Kirby (2012), requiring that treat ED in the context of the couple will be used, including the symptoms of the problem as a couple. A convenience sample is composed of 10 partners of women affected by ED, linked to a specialized service of a university hospital.