Childhood Eating and Weight in Eating Disorders: A Multi-Centre European Study of Affected Women and Their Unaffected Sisters

Abstract

Background: Previous studies have suggested that childhood eating and weight problems may be risk factors for eating disorders. Robust evidence is still lacking. Aims: To investigate whether childhood eating and weight problems increase the risk of eating disorders in affected women compared to their unaffected sisters. Methods: Women (150) with anorexia (AN) or bulimia nervosa (BN) recruited from clinical and community samples were compared to their unaffected sister closest in age on maternal reports of childhood eating and weight. Results: Women with BN were significantly more overweight at the ages of 5 and 10 (both OR = 2.8, p < 0.01), ate a lot (OR = 1.3, p < 0.01), were less picky (OR = 0.6, p < 0.05) and ate quickly (OR = 2.3, p < 0.05) between the ages of 6 and 10 compared to their healthy sisters. Significantly more women with AN were described as having a higher weight at 6 months (OR = 0.8, p < 0.01) and 1 year (OR = 0.6, p < 0.01) compared to their healthy sisters. Childhood eating was comparable in the women with AN and their unaffected sisters. Conclusions: Traits of childhood overeating were more common in bulimic women compared to their unaffected siblings. Subjects with AN did not differ from their sisters on eating variables. The increased risk of BN due to childhood overweight suggests that prevention strategies for childhood obesity and overweight may therefore be applicable in BN.

Inpatient versus Day Clinic Treatment for Bulimia Nervosa: A Randomized Trial

“…A comparison to remission rates of other studies is problematic and probably misleading, as results vary broadly according to outcome definitions, samples of patients and length of follow-up [29, 30]. That we could not identify predictors of outcome in bulimia nervosa [31] is in line with previous studies, but may also be due to not having included all possibly relevant aspects [32]. The best predictor of outcome seems to be an early treatment response [33], a finding that is unspecific and also found in other patient groups.…”

Lifetime and 12-month prevalence of eating disorders amongst women in mid-life: a population-based study of diagnoses and risk factors

“…Given high diagnostic crossover [32], women were categorized into mutually exclusive diagnostic groups. Women who only met one diagnosis were assigned to that diagnostic group; for those who had more than one diagnosis over their lifetime a hierarchical approach was used: full diagnoses (AN, BN, BED) trumped OSFED subtypes, BED trumped BN, and BN trumped AN, in accordance to our and others’ previous studies [19, 33], and evidence that diagnostic crossover over the lifetime in ED and in this sample occurs most commonly from restrictive type disorders (anorexia nervosa – restrictive (AN-R)) to binge and/or binge-purge disorders [19, 32]. …”

Forschungsschwerpunkte in der Österreichischen Kinder- und Jugendpsychiatrie – 2007 bis 2017

“…Aus den Publikationen, die aus den 5 Schwerpunktthemen hervorgegangen sind werden 5 wichtige Publikationen ausgewählt, aus den weiteren 6 Themen 2. Die meisten der 284 Publikationen erscheinen zu 5 Themen: Essstörungen (n = 34) [20][21][22][23][24], gefolgt von Forensik (n = 23) [25][26][27][28][29], Neuropädiatrie (n = 22) [30][31][32][33], Psychosen und Prodrome (n = 19) [34][35][36][37][38] und Suizidalität (n = 17) [39][40][41][42][43]. Diese 5 Themen ergaben 115 Publikationen, was etwa 41 % der Artikel ausmacht.…”