Anorexia Nervosa is a severe and disabling mental disorder and a huge challenge to treat. Intense fears of e.g., food, eating, weight gain and social evaluation are core features of anorexia nervosa and obstacles during treatment. The perceived threats trigger avoidance and safety behaviors like highly restrictive eating, strict eating rules, vomiting and body checking, to minimize feared outcomes. The role of avoidance in anorexia nervosa is however hardly studied experimentally. In the present article, the focus is on a new transdiagnostic research agenda featuring both basic and clinical experimental research into avoidance as a most important mechanism maintaining the eating disorder. Avoidance learning and the generalization of learned avoidance behaviors are discussed, as well as safety behaviors and the need for inhibitory learning as a treatment target during exposure therapy.

神经性厌食症是一种严重且致残的精神障碍，治疗起来也是一个巨大的挑战。对食物、进食、体重增加和社会评价的强烈恐惧是神经性厌食症的核心特征和治疗过程中的障碍。感知到的威胁会触发回避和安全行为，例如高度限制饮食、严格的饮食规则、呕吐和身体检查，以尽量减少可怕的结果。然而，几乎没有实验研究回避在神经性厌食症中的作用。在本文中，重点是一个新的跨诊断研究议程，其特点是将回避作为维持饮食失调的最重要机制的基础和临床实验研究。讨论了回避学习和习得回避行为的泛化，