Psychopathology of EDNOS patients: To whom do they compare?

Abstract

Do the levels of psychopathology displayed by patients with an eating disorder not otherwise specified (EDNOS) more closely resemble those displayed by full-criteria anorexia and bulimia nervosa patients than they do those of non-eating-disorder controls? Three groups of eating disorder patients (anorexia nervosa, n = 27; bulimia nervosa, n = 23; EDNOS, n = 19) and a group of non-eating-disorder controls (n = 25) were compared on four subscales of the Eating Disorders Inventory – 2 (EDI-2), and on the Eating Disorders Belief Questionnaire, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales. EDNOS patients were indistinguishable from the other two eating disorder groups on all of the measured variables, except for the Perfectionism subscale of the EDI-2. The findings of the present study support the view that EDNOS should not be considered a subclinical eating disorder. However, much remains to be understood about who EDNOS patients are.