Personality characteristics of women before and after recovery from an eating disorder.
BACKGROUND
Previous studies of personality characteristics in women with eating disorders primarily have focused on women who are acutely ill. This study compares personality characteristics among women who are ill with eating disorders, recovered from eating disorders, and those without eating or other Axis I disorder pathology.


METHODS
Female participants were assessed for personality characteristics using the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI): 122 with anorexia nervosa (AN; 77 ill, 45 recovered), 279 with bulimia nervosa (BN; 194 ill, 85 recovered), 267 with lifetime histories of both anorexia and bulimia nervosa (AN + BN; 194 ill, 73 recovered), 63 with eating disorder not otherwise specified (EDNOS; 31 ill, 32 recovered), and 507 without eating or Axis I disorder pathology.


RESULTS
Women ill with all types of eating disorders exhibited several TCI score differences from control women, particularly in the areas of novelty-seeking, harm avoidance, self-directedness, and cooperativeness. Interestingly, women recovered from eating disorders reported higher levels of harm avoidance and lower self-directedness and cooperativeness scores than did normal control women.


CONCLUSIONS
Women with eating disorders in both the ill and recovered state show higher levels of harm avoidance and lower self-directedness and cooperativeness scores than normal control women. Although findings suggest that disturbances may be trait-related and contribute to the disorders' pathogenesis, additional research with more representative community controls, rather than our pre-screened, normal controls, is needed to confirm these impressions.
Klump
Kelly L
KL
Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824-1116, USA. klump@msu.edu
Strober
Michael
M
Bulik
Cynthia M
CM
Thornton
Laura
L
Johnson
Craig
C
Devlin
Bernie
B
Fichter
Manfred M
MM
Halmi
Katherine A
KA
Kaplan
Allan S
AS
Woodside
D Blake
DB
Crow
Scott
S
Mitchell
James
J
Rotondo
Alessandro
A
Keel
Pamela K
PK
Berrettini
Wade H
WH
Plotnicov
Katherine
K
Pollice
Christine
C
Lilenfeld
Lisa R
LR
Kaye
Walter H
WH
D000328:Adult; D000856:Anorexia Nervosa / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D002032:Bulimia / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005106:Exploratory Behavior; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D010551:Personality; D010555:Personality Inventory; D016728:Self-Injurious Behavior; D016896:Treatment Outcome