Premium
Impulsivity‐related traits distinguish women with co‐occurring bulimia nervosa in a psychiatric sample
Author(s) -
Reas Deborah L.,
Pedersen Geir,
Rø Øyvind
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
international journal of eating disorders
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.785
H-Index - 138
eISSN - 1098-108X
pISSN - 0276-3478
DOI - 10.1002/eat.22606
Subject(s) - impulsivity , borderline personality disorder , psychology , sensation seeking , bulimia nervosa , major depressive disorder , clinical psychology , personality , psychiatry , big five personality traits , psychopathology , eating disorders , mood , social psychology
Objective This study investigated impulsivity‐related personality traits using the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO PI‐R) in women diagnosed with co‐occurring bulmia nervosa and borderline personality disorder (BN‐BPD), borderline personality disorder (BPD no‐BN), or major depressive disorder (MDD‐only). Method The sample included 672 adult female admissions to a psychiatric day hospital treatment program. The NEO PI‐R facets of impulsiveness (N5), excitement‐seeking (E5), self‐discipline (C5), and deliberation (C6) provided a proxy assessment of impulsivity‐related traits tapping negative urgency, sensation‐seeking, lack of perseverance, and lack of premeditation/planning. Results After adjusting for age, BN‐BPD displayed significantly higher levels of negative urgency and lack of premeditation than BPD without co‐occurring BN. Women with BN‐BPD also had significantly higher levels of impulsivity traits than MDD across domains, except for lack of perseverance. Discussion Impulsivity‐related traits of negative urgency and lack of premeditation significantly differentiated women with versus without co‐occurring BN among women with borderline personality disorder. Lower levels of impulsivity‐related traits in women with MDD indicated that effects were not simply attributable to any form of psychopathology. Of the impulsivity traits, negative urgency demonstrated the strongest effect, providing further evidence of the important relationship between negative urgency and the expression of bulimic symptomology. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (Int J Eat Disord 2016; 49:1093–1096)