Personality Disorders and Eating Disorders: Exploring the Frontier

Early Improvement in Eating Attitudes during Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Eating Disorders: The Impact of Personality Disorder Cognitions

“…Kaye, Bulik, Thornton, Barbarich and Masters, 2004; Swinbourne and Touyz, 2007), and the suggestion that the two share a common core cognitive and behavioural pathology (Waller, 2008). It also supports the work of Sansone et al (2005, 2006), who demonstrated that avoidant personality disorder is among the most commonly comorbid personality disorders in the eating disorders.…”

“…There is high comorbidity between the eating disorders and cluster B and C personality disorders, particularly with avoidant, dependent, borderline and obsessive-compulsive personality disorders (Sansone, Levitt and Sansone, 2005, 2006). However, Connan et al (2009) have shown that the key cognitive aspects of the personality disorders in the pathology of the eating disorders appear to be cognitions relating to the anxiety-based cluster C personality disorders (avoidant and obsessive-compulsive), rather than cognitions relating to the impulsive cluster B personality disorders (such as borderline).…”

Emotional instability as a trait risk factor for eating disorder behaviors in adolescents: Sex differences in a large-scale prospective study

“…ED behaviors investigated in this study, i.e. binge eating and purging (vomiting, laxative and other medicine use for weight control), are diagnostic criteria for BN and AN-BP, EDs associated with emotionally unstable personality (Cassin and von Ranson, 2005; Sansone et al ., 2006; Sansone and Sansone, 2011; Farstad et al ., 2016). The current study offers evidence of a developmental trajectory from trait-based emotional instability, starting in early childhood, to these ED behaviors in adolescence.…”

“…Emotionally unstable personalities may be at greatest risk for engaging in binge eating and purging behaviors. The highest prevalence of personality disorders was found in BN and AN-BP ED subtypes, with borderline personality disorder (BPD) most commonly diagnosed (Cassin and von Ranson, 2005; Sansone et al ., 2006; Sansone and Sansone, 2011). Hence, personality and temperament traits characterized by emotional instability and interpersonal difficulties may increase risk for EDs.…”

Does avoidant personality disorder impact on the outcome of treatment for bulimia nervosa?

“…The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) reports prevalence of AVPD between 0.5 and 1.0% in the general population however, across eating disorder diagnoses this increases from 16 to 27% making it one of the most common personality disorder diagnoses in the eating disorder population. 3 Studies examining the impact of personality psychopathology co-occurring with an eating disorder have produced mixed findings on treatment outcome. 4 However, most of the research in this area has been conducted on cluster B personality disorders, more specifically borderline personality disorder.…”