The objective of this study was to examine the experience and expression of anger in eating disorders (EDs) including bulimia nervosa purging (BN-P) and anorexia nervosa restrictive (AN-R) subtypes, impulsive disorders such as pathological gambling (PG), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and a non psychiatric healthy control group.

The sample comprised 80 female SODs individuals (20 BN-P, 21 AN-R, 19 PG, 21 TOC) consecutively admitted to our Department and 21 healthy controls. Patients were diagnosed according to DSM-IV-R criteria. We administered the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory-2 (STAXI-2). in the control group, the GHQ-28 was also employed.

Compared to the healthy control group, elevated Trait Anger scores were revealed for the BN-P (p< .011) and OCD (p< .003) groups. in addition, the OCD group scored higher on this scale than the PG patients (p< .039). as regards to State Anger, higher scores were uncovered for the OCD patients than for the control group (p< .017). Finally, when Anger Expression was assessed, higher scores were found for the OCD (p< .001) and BN (p< .001) individuals when compared to healthy controls. in addition, compared to AN-R, the BN-P and OCD exhibited higher scores on this scale (p< .001 and p< .037, respectively).

Our results indicate that, OCD and BN-P patients may have inadequate anger expressions and deficits in coping with anger and frustration when compared to a healthy control group. Conversely, no significant differences were revealed between AN-R, PG and controls. Finally, some differences across diagnoses were also obtained.

Psychotic depression has a higher rate of disability and relapse than non psychotic depression, however the optimal maintenance treatment after an acute response to either the antidepressant/antipsychotic combination or an ECT course is unclear (Rothschild, 2013). Although ECT is an effective therapy in affective disorders and M/C ECT is used to achieve and maintain patient's stability (Brown, 2014), very little is known about its implications in functionality or quality of life.

To study the relation between psychotic symptoms and functionality and quality of life in patients with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) undergoing M/C ECT.

Transversal descriptive study of a sample of 17 MDD patients in M/C ECT. Administration of SF-36 (quality of life related to health), FAQ (functionality), Family APGAR, MMSE, GAF, HDRS. Informed consent. Statistical analysis with SPSS18.

The mean age of the sample was 72.47 years, 58.8% presented with psychotic symptoms and 41.2% with melancholic symptoms. We only found a statistically significant negative correlation between the Family APGAR and the presence of psychotic symptoms (U = –2.291, P = 0.025), without other differences in terms of functionality or quality of life.

This study supports that there is no implication in the presence of psychotic symptoms regarding functionality or quality of life among the patients undergoing M/C ECT. We emphasize the need for randomized control trials to disentangle the effects of multiple variables on the functionality and quality of life of patients in M/C ECT.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.