[Comorbidity between eating disorders and anxiety disorders. First part: methodological review].
The objective of our work is to conduct a critical literature review on studies assessing the prevalence of anxiety disorders (AD) in subjects with eating disorders (ED) (anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa). In the first part (this paper), we will discuss methodological issues relevant to comorbidity studies between ED and AD.


METHODS
We performed a manual and computerised search (Medline) for all published studies on comorbidity between ED and AD, limiting our search to the 1985-2002 period, in order to get sufficiently homogeneous diagnostic criteria for both categories of disorders (most often RDC, DSM III, DSM Ill-R, or DSM IV criteria).


RESULTS
We review methodological issues regarding population sources, general methodological procedures, diagnostic criteria for ED and AD, diagnostic instruments, age of subjects and course of the eating disorder.


CONCLUSIONS
We give implications for reviewing the results of published studies and planing future research.
Godart
N T
NT
Département de Psychiatrie, Institut Mutualiste Montsouris, 42, boulevard Jourdan, 75014 Paris, France.
Perdereau
F
F
Jeammet
Ph
P
Flament
M F
MF
D000328:Adult; D017668:Age of Onset; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015897:Comorbidity; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D001068:Feeding and Eating Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015995:Prevalence; D012720:Severity of Illness Index