Personality Disorders in patients with disorders in eating behaviors
Abstract
The interest for the systematic study of personality disorder in patients with eating disorders starts in 1980 with the edition of the DSM III multiaxial classification system. Since then, several publications have been focused on the prevalence and the effect on treatment of personality disorders in bulimic and anorexic patients. These researches showed inconsistent results due to conceptual and methodological divergences. In this paper, the more relevant findings of these studies are presented and the possible sources of discrepancy are analyzed. In general, there is a moderate comorbidity between personality disorders and eating disorders. The most frequent disorders are borderline, histrionic, obsessive-compulsive, dependent and avoidant personality disorders. Borderline and histrionic personality disorders are more frequently associated with bulimia, whereas avoidant and obsessive- compulsive personality disorders are more characteristic of anorexia nervosa. Nevertheless, the effect of the relationship between eating disorders and personality disorders in treatment remains uncertain, giving raise to several controversies and researches.
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References
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