Eating Disorders and Personality Disorders

Abstract

All dominant models of the eating disorders implicate personality variables in the emergence and development of the symptoms. The rate of co-occurrence between personality disorders and eating disorders is high, about half of eating disordered patients have a comorbid personality disorder. There is evidence of a poorer outcome of the eating disorder (time to remission, compliance to treatment) when there is a comorbid personality disorder. Thus, the comorbidity of a personality disorder has considerable relevance for clinical management of and treatment formulation of eating disordered patients.