Food-related aversion in a female sample of people with anorexia nervosa: Cognitive-behavioural correlates, somatic and subjective anxiety, and early experiences

Findings validate an anxiety-based model of anorexia nervosa which establishes the role of safety behaviours, threat cognitions, early aversive learning experiences, and anxiety in the psychopathology of the illness. Exposure-based interventions have the potential to target these factors, and inhibit food-related fear.