Wanted: Healthy young females to take part in important research on eating disorders (receive ?30)

[katieLang]

We are looking at differences in the brain for people with an eating disorder called Anorexia Nervosa and people who have never had an eating disorder, when solving puzzles and thinking about emotions. Anorexia Nervosa is an eating disorder whereby people have lots of worries about the shape and size of their body.

We will ask people to answer some questionnaires and complete some puzzles.

Some of the puzzles will be completed inside a brain scanner. The brain scanner will allow us to take photographs of your brain, whilst you complete the puzzles!

WHO CAN TAKE PART?

We would like to invite you to take part in this study if:

-You ARE female and aged between 12 and 18 years of age.

-You have NEVER had an eating disorder.

-You have NEVER had a diagnosis of a mental health problem.

-You DO NOT have any metal in your body that cannot be removed (e.g. a pacemaker).

-You are NOT pregnant.

-You ARE right handed.

WHAT DOES THE STUDY INVOLVE?

We will ask you to meet with one of our researchers to discuss the study and see if you have any questions. If you are under 16 a parent or guardian will need to meet with the researcher as well.

We will then ask you to complete some questionnaires. These ask questions about your eating habits and your mood.

After completing the questionnaires we will ask you to participate in a paper-based task and a computer task that look at different types of thinking. Both tasks will take around 10 minutes to complete.

Once these tasks have been completed the researcher will take you to the Centre for Neuroimaging Sciences (next door to the eating disorder research unit), where you will meet with a person who is trained and specialises in taking pictures of the brain (brain imaging).

You will then be asked to lie inside a brain scanner that takes pictures of the brain. The scanner is a big machine and you will be asked to lie on a bed that will slide into a tunnel in the scanner For some of the scan you will be asked to lie very still and rest. And then for the rest of the scan you will be asked to complete some tasks by looking at a screen in the scanner and clicking a button that will be placed in your hand. The brain scanner is completely safe and causes no harm.

Once the scan is finished your participation in the study will have finished. The study should last no longer than two hours. We will reimburse each participant ?30 for their time. This study has received full ethical approval.

For more detailed information about the study, or if you are a parent and you think your daughter would like to take part please contact Dr Katie Lang ([email protected]), who can arrange a time to discuss the study over the phone.