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Monday, September 27, 2010

Personality Disorders Common Among Women with Eating Disorders

Almost half the women who have eating disorders also have personality disorders, according to a study from Universitat Jaume I in Spain.

  • Dr. Azucena Garcia Palacios recruited 150 women over 24 years old, and divided them into three groups. One group had the purging types of bulimia and anorexia.
  • The second group showed restrictive eating behaviors, and the third group had normal eating habits.
  • Dr. Palacios found that 48.5% of those with anorexia or bulimia also had personality disorders.
  • The most common were avoidant personality disorder, in which a person feels extremely shy, inadequate, and sensitive to rejection.
  • Another was self-destructive personality disorder, which involves self-defeating behaviors.

The researchers noted that eating disorders are very difficult to treat because sufferers allow their bizarre patterns of eating to go untreated for years, often not until they have developed severe health problems from an overly restrictive diet. Dr. Palacios recommended that medical professionals should recognize and treat personality disorders along with eating disorders.
 

Labels: women, mental_health, mental_illness

Posted By: Eating Disorders Help Guide

Comments:

Chelsea on 11/2/2010
This sounds about right. Often anxiety, depression, borderline personality disorder, social anxiety and other things go hand-in-hand with eating disorders. It makes it that much more difficult for a sufferer to seek help and feel understood.