Affective temperaments in anorexia nervosa: The relevance of depressive and anxious traits

Affective temperaments have been so far understudied in anorexia nervosa (AN) despite the relevance of personality and both affective and anxious comorbidity with regard to vulnerability, course, and outcome of this deadly disorder.

Ninety-eight female inpatients diagnosed with AN and 131 healthy controls (HCs) were enrolled in this study and completed the Temperament Evaluation of Memphis, Pisa, Paris and San Diego Autoquestionnaire (TEMPS-A) in addition to assessments of eating psychopathology, depression, and anxiety.

AN patients and HCs differed in all affective temperaments. The diagnostic subtypes of AN differed as well with binge-purging individuals being more cyclothymic and anxious than those with restricting-type AN. TEMPS-A scores correlated with body mass index and eating psychopathology but not with duration of illness. Concerning comorbidity, grater scores on the depressive and lower scores on the hyperthymic temperaments were found in depressed patients. Those who had either an anxious or irritable temperament were significantly more diagnosed with an anxious disorder than those who did not show this temperament. When logistic regression was performed, high depressive/low hyperthymic and high irritable/anxious traits resulted to be associated with depressive and anxious comorbidity, respectively, independently of confounding factors.

Cross-sectional design, some patients on medications, few baseline clinical differences between diagnostic subtypes, no other personality assessments.

An affective continuum strongly associated with mood and anxious comorbidity emerged in AN. Such an evaluation could have several research and clinical implications given the need of improving treatment individualization and early interventions for such a complex disorder.