Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate comorbidity for MD in a large ED sample and both personality and anger as clinical characteristics of patients with ED and MD. We assessed 838 ED patients with psychiatric evaluations and psychometric questionnaires: Temperament and Character Inventory, Eating Disorder Inventory-2, Beck Depression Inventory, and State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory. 19.5% of ED patients were found to suffer from comorbid MD and 48.7% reported clinically significant depressive symptomatology: patients with Anorexia Binge-Purging and Bulimia Nervosa were more likely to be diagnosed with MD. Irritable mood was found in the 73% of patients with MD. High Harm Avoidance (HA) and low Self-Directedness (SD) predicted MD independently of severity of the ED symptomatology, several clinical variables, and ED diagnosis. Assessing both personality and depressive symptoms could be useful to provide effective treatments. Longitudinal studies are needed to investigate the pathogenetic role of HA and SD for ED and MD.

Highlights

  • Lifetime comorbidity between Eating Disorders (EDs) and Mood Disorders has been confirmed by several retrospective studies reporting that in Anorexia Nervosa (AN) the prevalence of mood disorders varies between 64.1% and 96% whereas in Bulimia Nervosa (BN) between 50% and 90%

  • We assessed 838 ED patients with psychiatric evaluations and psychometric questionnaires: Temperament and Character Inventory, Eating Disorder Inventory-2, Beck Depression Inventory, and State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory. 19.5% of ED patients were found to suffer from comorbid Major Depression (MD) and 48.7% reported clinically significant depressive symptomatology: patients with Anorexia Binge-Purging and Bulimia Nervosa were more likely to be diagnosed with MD

  • Significant differences were demonstrated among diagnostic subtypes; patients with purging behaviours (AN-BP and BN) were more likely to be diagnosed with MD when compared to AN and Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (EDNOS)

Read more

Summary

Introduction

Lifetime comorbidity between Eating Disorders (EDs) and Mood Disorders has been confirmed by several retrospective studies reporting that in Anorexia Nervosa (AN) the prevalence of mood disorders varies between 64.1% and 96% whereas in Bulimia Nervosa (BN) between 50% and 90%. Major Depression (MD) is the most prevalent comorbid mood disorder in ED patients, and the severity of depressive symptomatology seems to be related to the ED one [2,3,4,5]. The experience and expression of anger in patients with comorbid depression and ED have been relatively neglected, even though hostility and aggressiveness are commonly reported in ED populations [7, 8]

Objectives
Methods
Discussion
Conclusion
Full Text
Published version (Free)

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call