Personality disorders in patients affected by anorexia and bulimia nervosa: A pilot-study

Abstract

In this paper was compared the personality profile in 25 outpatients with eating disorders (5 with restricting anorexia nervosa, 7 with purging anorexia nervosa, 5 with purging bulimia nervosa and 8 with eating disorder not otherwise specified). Although 72% of the females showed at least one personality disorder, there were not differences among groups. Later on, all the patients were divided in two groups, according to the presence or absence of purgative behaviors. Patients with purgative behaviors showed more frequently and had a higher number of personality disorders than patients without purging behaviors. Finally implications for further research in this area are commented upon.