Prevalence Estimates of Comorbid Eating Disorders and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: A Quantitative Synthesis

Abstract

ABSTRACT Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is common among individuals with eating disorders (ED) including anorexia nervosa (AN), bulimia nervosa (BN), and binge-eating disorder (BED). Comorbidity prevalence estimates for these disorders vary widely from 1% to 57%. The present study aimed to quantitatively synthesize all known prevalence rates to assess the comorbidity of PTSD and ED. Summons and Google Scholar were utilized to find peer-reviewed publications, resulting in 29 relevant articles consisting of 33 samples. Findings revealed that the pooled prevalence of PTSD in ED samples was 24.59% when weighted by study quality and 18.35% when weighted by study sample size. Among samples of individuals with PTSD diagnoses, the prevalence of ED was 20.05% when weighted by quality and 0.39% when weighted by sample size. Pooled prevalence findings within an ED population and within a PTSD population when weighted by study quality were: 17.52%, 10.83% for AN; 20.73%, 11.73% for BN; and 21.54%, 3.24% for BED, respectively. Findings suggest meaningful implications for clinicians treating individuals with PTSD and/or ED. It is recommended that clinicians become more aware of the co-occurrence of ED-PTSD and integrate this information in clinical practice when working with individuals affected by either disorder.