Dissociative states and disordered eating

To investigate the relationship between eating problems and dissociation, 142 college women completed the Eating Disorders Inventory, the Bulimia Test, the Dissociative Experiences Scale, the Perceptual Alteration Scale, and a demographic information worksheet. The two eating-disorder inventories were strongly correlated (rs = .71). The two dissociation scales, however, were only moderately correlated (rs = .32), suggesting they are measuring different underlying experiences. The pattern of the correlations of the subscales of the dissociation scales with the eating disorder scales suggested that cognitive distortions were not as important in the relationship with eating disorders (all correlations were less than .21) as were dissociation of feelings and loss of control (the correlations for eating related subscales ranged as high as .51). These results were interpreted to suggest that dissociation of feelings might underlie eating problems. These results indicate the value of the use of hypnotherapy in working with eating-disordered clients.