Several studies have examined the neuropsychological functioning in patients with Eating Disorders (ED) suggesting that they could be related to an impairment in several areas. We investigate such cognitive functions especially decision making and visual-spatial memory in an independent sample of patients suffering from ED and to evaluate possible differences between patients suffering from Anorexia Nervosa (AN) and Bulimia Nervosa (BN) as well as between ED subjects and healthy controls.

Trial Making Test (TMT), Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) and Gambling Task (GT) were administered to 15 AN patients 12 BN patients and 19 healthy subjects.

We observed that 80% of AN and the 75% of BN subjects performed poorly in the IGT compared to the healthy subjects (36,8%). Similarly, ED patients committed more mistakes and employed more time to complete TMT compared to healthy controls. However, no significant difference was found between ED groups and healthy subjects with respect to GT. Further, no significant difference was observed between AN and BN subjects with respect to IGT and GT.

Our results suggested that patients with ED could have a significant deficit in visual-spatial attention. As a consequence they need more time to complete the task and make more mistakes. Furthermore ED patient had a deficit in decision making tasks as well. This could reflect deficits in planning long term strategies to approach problems, possibly leading to improper behaviors for the control of their weight.