Therapist Survey on Eating Disorder Cases: Normal vs. Difficult

A survey of 127 psychotherapists with experience in eating disorder treatment, conducted by Armin Hartmann. The dataset captures therapist perspectives on patient characteristics, symptoms, and therapeutic challenges for cases they considered 'normal' and 'difficult'. The data was last updated on March 17, 2026.

Use Cases

• Identify predictors of treatment difficulty based on patient motivation and ambivalence.
• Analyze the relationship between patient personality traits, such as antagonism, and perceived case difficulty.
• Model associations between somatic complications, like electrolyte imbalance, and therapist-reported challenges.
• Study therapist-reported therapeutic process and relationship factors in difficult cases.

Strengths

• Data is based on a survey of 127 experienced psychotherapists.
• Focuses on a specific, clinically relevant comparison between 'normal' and 'difficult' cases.
• Released under a CC-BY-4.0 license, allowing for broad reuse.

Limitations

• Dataset is very small at 23.0 KB, indicating limited scope.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

Armin Hartmann via figshare.

Collection Method

Online survey where psychotherapists described a 'normal' and a 'difficult' case they treated.

Time Range

Survey period not specified; data reflects cases treated 'lately' at the time of the study.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-17 13:06:53; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Geographic coverage of therapists is not specified.