Appearance-based rejection sensitivity as a mediator of the relationship between symptoms of social anxiety and disordered eating cognitions and behaviors.

Previous research has established a robust relationship between symptoms of social anxiety and disordered eating. However, the mechanisms that may underpin this relationship are unclear. Appearance-based rejection sensitivity (ABRS)-the tendency to anxiously expect and overreact to signs of appearance-based rejection-may be a crucial explanatory mechanism, as ABRS has been shown to maintain social anxiety symptoms and predict disordered eating. We therefore tested whether ABRS mediated the relationship between social anxiety symptoms and various indices of disordered eating (over-evaluation of weight/shape, restraint, binge eating, compulsive exercise, and vomiting). Data from community-based females (n=299) and males (n=87) were analyzed. ABRS was shown to mediate the relationship between social anxiety and the over-evaluation, restraint, binge eating, and compulsive exercise frequency, but not vomiting. These effects also occurred for both females and males separately. Findings demonstrated that ABRS may be an important mechanism explaining why socially anxious individuals report elevated symptoms of disordered eating. Future research testing all proposed mediating variables of the social anxiety-disordered eating link in a single, integrative model is required to identify the most influential mechanisms driving this relationship.

The long-term outcome of children managed with extracorporeal life support: an institutional experience.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the long-term functional status and quality of life of infants and children who have received extracorporeal life support (ECLS), and to determine how and when death occurred. DESIGN: Long-term, prospective follow-up study. SETTING: 16-bed paediatric intensive care unit in a university teaching hospital. PARTICIPANTS: All children who received ECLS in the period April 1988 to October 2000 in the paediatric ICU at the Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne, VIC. METHODS: The records of all 224 children who had received ECLS were reviewed, and functional status and quality of life were assessed through interview with each child's parent or guardian for those who had survived. RESULTS: Follow-up information was available for 211 children at a median of 7.2 years (range, 3.9 months to 12.6 years) after admission to the paediatric ICU. Sixty-nine children were alive at follow-up, 96% of whom were likely to lead an independent existence. Of the 142 deaths, 123 occurred in the paediatric ICU: 74 were due to elective withdrawal of therapy for poor prognosis, and eight for brain death; 30 were disease-related; seven were ECLSrelated; and four were due to sepsis. CONCLUSIONS: ECLS is a complex therapy which has been used in Australian children for 18 years; a third of children survived long term, and 96% of these had a favourable outcome.