[The incidence of sexual abuse in women with eating disorders]

The literature is contradictory concerning a possible connection between sexual abuse and the development of eating disorders. In the present study, the medical records and psychotherapeutic courses of all female patients (n = 127) were reviewed for the years 1987-1989 in the Department of Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy at Steglitz Medical Center in Berlin in order to record any reported incidences of pre-onset sexual abuse as well as the age at the time of abuse. The women were subdivided into four diagnostic groups: obesity (n = 14), bulimia (n = 18), anorexia (n = 22) and others without eating disorders (n = 73). Altogether, sexual abuse was reported in 19% with and 10% without eating disorders (difference not statistically significant). Comparison of the individual diagnostic groups unexpectedly revealed a significantly higher frequency of sexual abuse among obese patients than among those without eating disorders (36% vs. 10%, p = 0.028).