Welcome to the ARFID PARDI

Dr. Jenny Thomas, PhD

What is Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder?

Restriction without body image

What would cause someone to restrict food if it wasn’t to change the body?

Phenotypes described - Three types can occur in same individual

1. Sensory sensitivity presentation – textures
2. Trauma – vomiting, choking, pain in belly
3. Lack of Interest – “I forget to eat”, don’t get hungry and get full quickly

(ARFID Plus)

What works? - Exposure therapy, Cooking therapy, sometimes speech therapy, eating at regular times, the body will come to expect that.

Division of responsibility doesn’t match this diagnosis. Enough preferred foods first so enough calories, then slowly introduce variety.

CBT-AR – patients will report hunger simply from the act of eating. Develop a cadence of appetite.

What does CCK have to do with this?

NIMH study –Adults with ARFID 2022-2027

Dr. Thomas’ Seasonings:

Organizations

• Academy for Eating Disorders (AED, organization for professionals) — https://www.aedweb.org/home
• Feeding Matters (organization for families) — https://www.feedingmatters.org

Books about ARFID

• Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (treatment manual)
• Picky Eater’s Recovery Book (CBT self-help book for adults)

Assessments for ARFID

• PARDI (clinical interview for ARFID; click on “supporting information” at this link for a copy of the full interview) — https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/eat.22958
• PARDI-AR-Q (self-report screening questionnaire for ARFID) — https://jeatdisord.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40337-022-00706-7

Opportunities for participation in ARFID research studies

• Neurobiological underpinnings of avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder in adults — https://rally.massgeneralbrigham.org/study/answer

Bio:

Dr. Jennifer Thomas is the Co-director of the Eating Disorders Clinical and Research Program at Massachusetts General Hospital, and an Associate Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Thomas’s research focuses on avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder and other atypical eating disorders, as described in her books Almost Anorexic: Is My (or My Loved One’s) Relationship with Food a Problem?; Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder: Children, Adolescents, and Adults; and The Picky Eater’s Recovery Book: Overcoming Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder. She is currently principal investigator on several studies investigating the neurobiology and treatment of avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder, funded by the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health and private foundations. She is the author or co-author of more than 160 scientific publications. She is the current President of the Academy for Eating Disorders and recently completed a 5-year term as Associate Editor for the International Journal of Eating Disorders.

With your host Beth Harrell

IG  @beth.harrell.cedss 

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