Personality disorders in 545 patients with eating disorders

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Abstract
Objective: Previous research on the prevalence of personality disorders in patients with eating disorders varies greatly in findings, but a general understanding seem to exist that personality disorders are rather common among eating‐disordered patients. The present investigation is aimed at establishing the prevalence of DSM III‐R or DSM IV personality disorders in a large population seeking treatment for eating disorders.Method: Five hundred and forty‐five patients with DSM IV‐ eating disorders have been evaluated using the structured clinical interview for DSM III‐R or IV‐Axis II and the eating disorder examination.Results: The 29.5% of the population have one or more personality disorders according to DSM III‐R or DSM IV criteria. Personality disorders, and specifically borderline personality disorder, are significantly more common in patients with bulimia nervosa.Discussion: The proportion of eating‐disordered patients with co‐morbid personality disorder may not be as large as often found in studies. This challenges the understanding of a strong overall connection between the two groups of disorder; however, the connection seems to exist in subsets of eating disorder samples. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and Eating Disorders Association.