Covert multiple personality underlying eating disorders.
Frequently, MPD patients present themselves to the clinician with a variety of psychophysiological symptoms. Eating-disorder symptoms may be one of these, and may include the following: binge eating, self-induced vomiting, laxative abuse, excessive exercising, body image distortion, self-starvation, fluctuations in body weight, and nausea. Following are five cases in whom the pathological eating behavior was a manifestation of an underlying multiple personality disorder. The pathological eating behavior was so severe that some patients matched DSM-III-R diagnostic criteria for an eating disorder. Clinicians dealing with eating disorders should be aware that some patients may represent a subgroup in whom the underlying cause for the eating disorder may be MPD. These patients seldom respond to conventional treatment modalities used in eating-disorders programs, and only when the underlying multiplicity is identified and treated by a trained clinician, will the patient's eating-disorder symptoms improve.
Torem
M S
MS
Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Akron General Medical Center, OH 44307.
D000328:Adult; D000856:Anorexia Nervosa / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D002032:Bulimia / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D004213:Dissociative Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D009105:Dissociative Identity Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011613:Psychotherapy