Are there more personality disorders in treatment-seeking patients with eating disorders than in other kind of psychiatric patients? A two control groups comparative study using the IPDE

Abstract

The aims of this ex post facto study were to determine the comorbidity of personality disorders (PD) with eating disorders (ED), to establish the prominent characteristics of eating disorders subtypes and to compare PDs appeared in patients with EDs with those in other clinical and normal samples. Using the International Personality Disorders Examination (IPDE), 84 outpatients with EDs were compared with 23 mentally disordered women and with 23 normative women. All the statistical analyses have been carried out using non-parametric analyses. 54.8% of ED sample met criteria for at least one PD compared to 21.7% of non-ED patients and to 8.7% of normative control group. The most common PDs in the ED group were the obsessivecompulsive, borderline and avoidant, without any differences among the EDs groups. More than a half of the subjects with anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa met the criteria for at least one PD and this was a specific characteristic of patients with an ED.