Occasionally our team will ask our psychologist, Dr. Rebecca Seifert, to do psychological testing on a patient.  Such testing is time consuming and expensive.  Why do we do it and what does it have to offer?

You have heard me say that, as the pancreas produces insulin, the brain produces behavior. Therefore, to understand the brain structurally and functionally, you must study behavior. Eating disordered behaviors and cognitions (thoughts) will need to be brought under control in order for a young patient to get well.  Identifying, evaluating and giving a name to behaviors is often the first step in controlling them.

Every brain is different, our individual minds (the product of our brains) are unique, but there are patterns to how they function, how they learn.  It is this individual pattern of functioning that trained psychologists can attempt to capture through testing.

Certain psychological tests can assess cognitive function and capacity (like I.Q. tests do), while others assess temperament or personality type or visual/spatial and language abilities.  Our colleagues in international eating disorder research Dr Bryan Lask and Dr Ian Frampton are testing the hypothesis that brain patterns specific to or typical of anorexia nervosa can be captured on a battery of psychological tests, which they call the “Ravello Protocol”.  Check back in coming weeks for further discussions about this interesting protocol and its implications for eating disorder treatment.

So how do we use the results of such testing at Kartini Clinic?  The treatment of eating disorders is complex and intensive and requires a multidisciplinary treatment team and an engaged family.  Understanding how a young person with anorexia nervosa thinks, how they learn, how they process information and what their strengths and weaknesses are gives Kartini Clinic’s treatment team an idea of what to emphasize and how to approach the individual child or young adult.

Currently the diagnosis “anorexia nervosa” is based on an evaluation of physical parameters and ? less common—lab tests, a family and individual history of the illness, and a structured interview.  Someday we may be able to add psychological testing to our diagnostic tools, and not only as a way to inform our treatment.  Such testing may in future help us “make the diagnosis” or even point to specific areas of the brain that are affected by the illness and therefore guide future treatments, including medication.