Ego boundary disturbance in juvenile anorexia nervosa

Tested the hypothesis that ego boundary disturbance is present in adolescent females with anorexia nervosa. Twenty anorexics were compared to 20 female depressed controls on Rorschach scales designed to measure theoretically relevant aspects of boundary impairment. Results showed that anorexics scored higher on scales that measure inner-outer and conceptual boundary disturbance and produced significantly more responses that emphasized the solidity of object boundaries. Boundary scores were unrelated to degree of weight loss and global symptom severity, and follow-up testing after normal weight was restored revealed little change from initial levels. These findings are discussed in relation to current theory on the role of developmental ego pathology in the origins and phenomenology of anorexia nervosa.