Pre‐morbid psychiatric morbidity, comorbidity and personality in patients with anorexia nervosa compared to their healthy sisters

Abstract

Anorexia nervosa (AN) has been linked with pre-morbid disorders, comorbidity, and specific personality traits in between-family case-control studies. However, these findings have not been replicated in within-family studies, and it is not known whether these factors are linked specifically with AN or are shared familial factors. We aimed to compare pre-morbid disorders, comorbidity, and specific personality traits between sister-pairs discordant for AN. Forty-five families with two sisters discordant for AN were retrospectively assessed by interview and questionnaires. The proband with AN had mood disorders and personality disorders (PDs) more frequently than their sister and had lower scores of novelty seeking, self-directedness and cooperativeness, and higher scores of harm avoidance, persistence, self-transcendence and of all EDI-2 scales. In conclusion, major depression, cluster C PDs, persistence, harm avoidance, and self-transcendence appear to be specifically linked to AN and to be European Eating Disorders Review

The development of the childhood retrospective perfectionism questionnaire (CHIRP) in an eating disorder sample

“…In line with prior studies of childhood OCPTs in women with EDs (Anderluh et al, 2003;Gillberg, Rastam, & Gillberg, 1995;Karwautz, Rabe-Hesketh, Collier, & Treasure, 2002), our hypotheses were that participants with a history of an ED would report a greater endorsement of behaviours associated with OCPTs in childhood than a sample of non-clinical control participants and that these traits would be apparent to informants.…”

Anorexia nervosa: Towards an integrative neuroscience model

“…Moreover, lifetime diagnoses of depression in individuals with AN have been as high as 80% (Ivarsson et al, 2000). Despite discrepant findings, research has found depression to predate the onset of AN (Iwasaki et al, 2000;Karwautz et al, 2002).…”

“…Further evidence of abnormalities in AN in the feeling timescale is suggested by the high rates of comborbid anxiety and mood disorders in AN, relative to the general population (Braun, Sunday, & Halmi, 1994;Geist, Davis, & Heinman, 1998;Godart, Flament, Lecrubier, & Jeammet, 2000;Ivarsson, Rastam, Wentz, Gillberg, & Gillberg, 2000;Iwasaki, Matsunaga, Kiriike, Tanaka, & Matsui, 2000;Karwautz, Rabe-Hesketh, Collier, & Treasure, 2002;Kaye, Bulik, Thornton, Barbarich, & Masters, 2004;Thornton & Russell, 1997). Rates of anxiety disorders have been as high as 83% with particularly high rates of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) (Godart et al, 2000).…”

“…As has been reported in semi-starvation studies of non-clinical populations (Keys et al, 1950), extreme levels of starvation and malnourishment result in depressed mood and/or distress. Similarly, in individuals with AN, a starvation syndrome serves to create or exacerbate pre-existing levels of disturbance including low mood and obsessionality (Godart et al, 2000;Iwasaki et al, 2000;Karwautz et al, 2002;Kaye et al, 2004;Thornton & Russell, 1997) reducing the motivation and capacity of individuals to initiate change. Moreover, cognitive or thinking deficits are also exacerbated or worsened by the starvation syndrome, and consequently serve to maintain the AN (e.g.…”

Migraine in Patients With Eating Disorders: A Study Using a Sister-Pair Comparison Design

“…The median age at the onset of the eating disorder was 16 (14)(15)(16)(17)(18) years. The median duration of the eating disorder was 63 (36-108) months.…”