Eating disorders, substance use disorders and multiple symptoms: three clinical vignettes

During the longitudinal study of three patients, referred to services at 3, 13, 15 years for eating disorders, reduced food intake and anorexia nervosa, other symptoms appeared depending on difficult development, relational and personality problems. The patients showed the interweaving of symptoms at different times: they were dealing with modified developmental needs and contexts, included new possibilities of attachment that might produce different internal organizations. These changes required different treatments. Anorexia started early in life for these girls, but presented different steps of organization. We wanted to start finding some aspects of a staging model to map the course of ED, because many patients arrived later in life, reported untreated early symptoms, actually personality traits. Mapping the evolution, could allow to take care of patients at the very early stage of problems when few symptoms are present, and better patients' evolution might be possible.

Level V opinions of respected authorities based on clinical experience.