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Symptoms of eating disorders in obsessive-compulsive disorder
H J Grabe1, A Thiel, H J Freyberger
1Department of Psychiatry, Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-University of Greifswald, Klinikum der Hansestadt Stralsund, Germany.
Objective:
Despite some empirical evidence suggesting an association between primary OCD and eating disorder (ED) within the 'obsessive-compulsive spectrum', the relationship at a symptomatological level has not been investigated.
Method:
First, comparisons of Eating Disorder Inventory (EDI) scores between 61 patients with primary OCD and 288 control subjects were performed. Secondly, the associations between EDI subscores and Hamburg Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory (HZI) dimensions in OCD patients were investigated by multiple regression analyses, controlling for the impact of general psychopathology.
Results:
The OCD patients showed significantly higher EDI-scores than controls. However, only distinct OCD symptom dimensions were significantly associated with the core symptoms of ED in females.
Conclusion:
Our results point to a differential gender and symptom-specific relationship between OCD and ED, calling into question a simple dimensional conceptualization of the 'obsessive-compulsive spectrum'.