Depression, anxiety, and obsessionality in long-term recovered patients with adolescent-onset anorexia nervosa.
Anorexia nervosa (AN) is frequently associated with symptoms of depression, anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive behavior which also develop secondary to semistarvation. It is less certain if these symptoms persist after recovery. A few studies have already reported on high prevalence rates of anxious, depressive, and obsessive features in long-term recovered patients with AN, but several of these so called "long-term" recovered patients had only maintained weight restoration for six to twelve months. The aim of this study was to determine whether depressive, anxious, and obsessive-compulsive symptoms persist in truly long-term recovered patients (BMI 20.3+/-2.5 kg/m(2)) who no longer had any eating disorder symptoms (including weight phobia) for at least 3 years. Seventeen subjects of an AN sample (n=39) previously described in a 10-year follow-up met our strict criteria of at least 3 years of complete recovery of AN. In comparison to 39 age-, sex-, and occupation-matched healthy subjects without a history of psychiatric or eating disorder, long-term recovered patients had higher levels of depressive (p=0.002), anxious (p=0.006), and obsessive-compulsive (p=0.015) features but did not differ with regard to psychiatric morbidity and psychosocial adaptation. In conclusion, depressive, anxious, and obsessive-compulsive symptoms may be personality traits in subjects with former adolescent anorexia nervosa.
Holtkamp
K
K
Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Technical University of Aachen, Neuenhofer Weg 21, 52074 Aachen, Germany. kholtkamp@ukaachen.de
Müller
B
B
Heussen
N
N
Remschmidt
H
H
Herpertz-Dahlmann
B
B
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017668:Age of Onset; D000856:Anorexia Nervosa / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D001007:Anxiety / Q000453:epidemiology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003863:Depression / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005858:Germany / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009771:Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder / Q000453:epidemiology*; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric