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Disordered Childhood Personality Traits May Underlie Anorexia

Childhood traits which reflect obsessive-compulsive personality appear to be important risk factors in the development of eating disorders.

These traits might represent markers of a broader phenotype for a specific subgroup of patients with anorexia nervosa, say investigators at the Institute of Psychiatry, London, England.

The chances of developing eating disorders in adult women rose seven-fold for every additional obsessive-compulsive personality trait that the women reported having in childhood, the researchers found. They assessed 44 women with anorexia nervosa, 28 with bulimia nervosa and 28 healthy women.

The women were asked to recall if they had experienced various childhood behaviours which suggested characteristics associated with obsessive-compulsive personality. The women also provided self-reported inventories of obsessive-compulsive disorder symptoms.

Women who reported perfectionism and rigidity in childhood had significantly higher rates of obsessive-compulsive personality disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder comorbidity later in life than women who did not report those two traits.
American Journal of Psychiatry 2003;160:2:242-247. "Childhood obsessive-compulsive personality traits in adult women with eating disorders: defining a broader eating disorder phenotype."

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