Eating disorders and general psychopathology: a comparison between young adult patients and normal controls with and without self‐reported eating problems

Abstract

Aim: To investigate general psychopathology among women with DSM-IV confirmed eating disorders (ED) and women from the general population with and without self-reported eating disorder problems. Method: Ninety-six ED patients between 18 and 26 years (M ¼ 21.59, SD ¼ 2.01) were compared with 265 randomly chosen age-matched controls (M ¼ 20.99, SD ¼ 2.01) with the Symptom Check List-90 (SCL-90). Result: ED patients scored significantly higher on all subscales compared with women without self-reported eating problems, and higher on several scales compared to women reporting previous eating problems. There were no differences between ED patients and controls with current eating problems. Women with self-reported eating disorder problems scored significantly higher than women without such problems on all scales except for 'phobic anxiety'. Discussion: Increased psychopathology in both ED patients and women with self-reported eating problems suggests that general psychopathology is related to eating disturbances per se, and not only to being a psychiatric patient.

Prevalence of Eating Disorder Risk and Associations with Health‐related Quality of Life: Results from a Large School‐based Population Screening

“…SCOFF scores ≥ 2 were significantly accompanied by higher total problem scores, internalising and externalising problem scores when controlled for sex, age and BMI with a larger effect size for internalising compared with externalising problems. These results are in line with those of previous studies that examined the relationship between eating problems and general psychopathology (Adambegan et al, ; Ekeroth et al, ). The association between disordered eating behaviours and externalising behavioural problems was hardly investigated so far.…”

“…The association of eating pathology and general psychopathology was mostly analysed using clinical samples (e.g. Bühren et al, ; Ohmann et al, ; Ekeroth, Broberg, & Nevonen, ). Only a few studies investigated the association between disordered eating behaviours and general psychopathology in a large population study of adolescents.…”

A longitudinal study of perfectionism in adolescent onset anorexia nervosa‐restricting type

“…Levels of general psychopathology have been found to be higher for individuals with eating disorders than non-symptomatic controls (Ekeroth, Broberg, & Nevonen, 2004). A positive relationship between AN and obsessive-compulsive (O-C) symptoms in children and adolescents has also been described (Serpell, Hirani, Willoughby, Neiderman, & Lask, 2006).…”