Dissociation in adolescent girls with anorexia: relationship to comorbid psychopathology

This study investigated the relationship between dissociation and psychological symptoms in adolescent girls with anorexia. First, the psychometric properties of the Adolescent Dissociative Experiences Scale (A-DES) were examined using data from 181 nonclinical adolescent boys and girls. Thereafter, A-DES scores and correlations with a range of psychological symptoms were compared across 20 girls with anorexia, 19 mixed clinical girls, and 86 nonclinical girls. The A-DES had a one-factor structure and good psychometric characteristics. Dissociation scores were significantly correlated with level of symptomatology for all groups. Although the group with anorexia did not have significantly higher dissociation scores than the other two groups, dissociation in the anorexic girls was related to psychopathology in a distinct way. Adolescent girls with anorexia appear to use dissociation specifically to avoid processing angry affect with an interpersonal basis, although it is also related to their use of somatization, and obsessive-compulsive features.