Language and Eating Disorders: Investigating linguistic features of Anorexia and Bulimia Nervosa in Italian online forums through NLP techniques

The aim of this thesis is to investigate linguistic features characterizing individuals with eating disorders (EDs) by employing Natural Language Processing (NLP) methodologies. Given the limited research in the field, particularly on EDs other than Anorexia Nervosa (AN) and in languages other than English, this study specifically focuses on written productions in Italian of two different subgroups of EDs: Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa (BN). Data were collected from online forums and a third group was included as a control. By adopting a multidisciplinary approach, the research integrates NLP techniques and tools, such as Sentiment Analysis, Emotion Detection, Topic Modelling, and Frame Semantic Parsing, with a variety of descriptive statistics and the LIWC analysis tool. While further research is needed for a deeper understanding of linguistic markers specific to each ED, preliminary findings reveal distinct patterns in language use across the three groups, highlighting variations in emotional expression, linguistic density, and topic framing