Obsessive compulsive comorbidity in the dieting disorders

This study investigated the comorbidity of obsessive compulsive disorder and obsessive compulsive personality disorder with the dieting disorders. A comorbid sample was examined in order to test the hypothesis that obsessive compulsive symptoms and personality are premorbid in these patients.

Sixty-eight inpatients (35 with anorexia nervosa and 33 with bulimia nervosa) were assessed for DSM-III-R Axis 1 and Axis 11 obsessive compulsive psychopathology using the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI) and the Personality Disorders Inventory (PDE), respectively.

Twenty-one percent of the group met criteria for a diagnosis of obsessive compulsive disorder. Thirty-seven percent of anorexia nervosa patients were comorbid for obsessive compulsive disorder compared to only 3% of bulimia nervosa patients. In most, the obsessive compulsive disorder had predated the dieting disorder. Nineteen percent of patients were found to have premorbid obsessive compulsive personality disorder.

This study supports the assumption of obsessive compulsive comorbidity within the dieting disorders and provides empirical support that this obsessionality is a premorbid characteristic.