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Personality disorders in 545 patients with eating disorders
Author(s) -
Godt Kristine
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
european eating disorders review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.511
H-Index - 67
eISSN - 1099-0968
pISSN - 1072-4133
DOI - 10.1002/erv.844
Subject(s) - eating disorders , personality disorders , bulimia nervosa , personality , psychology , borderline personality disorder , population , psychiatry , clinical psychology , sadistic personality disorder , medicine , social psychology , environmental health
Objective Previous research on the prevalence of personality disorders in patients with eating disorders varies greatly in findings, but a general understanding seem to exist that personality disorders are rather common among eating‐disordered patients. The present investigation is aimed at establishing the prevalence of DSM III‐R or DSM IV personality disorders in a large population seeking treatment for eating disorders. Method Five hundred and forty‐five patients with DSM IV‐ eating disorders have been evaluated using the structured clinical interview for DSM III‐R or IV‐Axis II and the eating disorder examination. Results The 29.5% of the population have one or more personality disorders according to DSM III‐R or DSM IV criteria. Personality disorders, and specifically borderline personality disorder, are significantly more common in patients with bulimia nervosa. Discussion The proportion of eating‐disordered patients with co‐morbid personality disorder may not be as large as often found in studies. This challenges the understanding of a strong overall connection between the two groups of disorder; however, the connection seems to exist in subsets of eating disorder samples. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and Eating Disorders Association.