Body Image

BACKGROUND: Yoga is a popular adjunct therapy for eating disorders (EDs). A systematic review and synthesis of the yoga literature is needed to guide treatment recommendations and future research. This article provides a review of studies that used yoga for preventing and treating EDs. METHOD: Databases were searched for peer-reviewed articles about yoga practice and ED symptoms and correlates.

INTRODUCTION: Female sexual dysfunction (FSD), consisting of a constellation of distressing sexual symptoms, is highly prevalent worldwide. Given the central role played by psychological factors in the development of FSD, psychologically and in particular mindfulness-based interventions have arisen as potential treatment options for women.

Empirical and clinical interest in positive body image has burgeoned in recent years. This focused attention is generating various measures and methods for researchers and psychotherapists to assess an array of positive body image constructs in populations of interest. No resource to date has integrated the available measures and methods for easy accessibility and comparison.

The two specialty psychological therapies of CBT and IPT remain the treatments of choice for the full range of BED patients, particularly those with high levels of specific eating disorder psychopathology such as overvaluation of body shape and weight. They produce the greatest degree of remission from binge eating as well as improvement in specific eating disorder psychopathology and associated general psychopathology such as depression. The CBT protocol evaluated in the research summarized above was the original manual from Fairburn and colleagues.

Good health has become more than a means to personal goals such as greater attractiveness and increased longevity. It symbolizes self-control, hard work, ambition, and success in life. Inherent in this symbolism is the concept that the individual controls behavior, which in turn controls health. Although control over one's life plays an important role in both physical and mental health, the concept of personal control also infers responsibility.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the psychosocial impact of lipodystrophy on the lifestyles of HIV positive patients on highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). METHODS: In-depth interviews were conducted with 14 HIV positive patients on HAART at an outpatient sexually transmitted infections (STI) and HIV clinic in central London. Qualitative data from interview transcripts were analysed using grounded theory to elicit key categories and subcategories.

OBJECTIVE: Excessive central fat puts one at greater risk of disease. In animal studies, stress-induced cortisol secretion has been shown to increase central fat. The objective of this study was to assess whether women with central fat distribution (as indicated by a high waist-to-hip ratio [WHR]), across a range of body mass indexes, display consistently heightened cortisol reactivity to repeated laboratory stressors.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the relative importance of familial, dietary, behavioral, psychological and social risk factors for predicting body mass index (BMI) change, and onset of overweight and obesity among adolescent girls. METHODS: Data from the NHLBI Growth and Health Study (n = 2 150), a longitudinal cohort of girls, were used to identify the most important predictors of change in BMI percentile between the ages of 9 and 19 years, and second, risk for becoming overweight and obese.

OBJECTIVE: To assess body shape ideals across gender, sexual orientation, race, socio-economic status, and age, METHOD: An analysis of personal advertisements was conducted across seven different publications which targeted the groups of interest. RESULTS: Women advertised body weight much less often than men, and lesbians reported body shape descriptors significantly less often than heterosexual women. Gay men and African-American men described their body shape significantly more often than did other groups.

This paper traces the transformation of narcissism, paralleling the transformations of object love, occurring between early and late adolescence. Narcissism is examined in terms of three lines of development: erotic self-love, omnipotence, and the regulations of self-esteem. The transition occurs relatively rapidly in most normal and psychoneurotic individuals and involves a massive reorganization of the psyche. The acquisition of a body image of an adult sort probably acts an organizer. A normal consequence is the first romantic love relationship.