Personality disorders in 545 patients with eating disorders.
OBJECTIVE
Previous research on the prevalence of personality disorders in patients with eating disorders varies greatly in findings, but a general understanding seem to exist that personality disorders are rather common among eating-disordered patients. The present investigation is aimed at establishing the prevalence of DSM III-R or DSM IV personality disorders in a large population seeking treatment for eating disorders.


METHODS
Five hundred and forty-five patients with DSM IV- eating disorders have been evaluated using the structured clinical interview for DSM III-R or IV-Axis II and the eating disorder examination.


RESULTS
The 29.5% of the population have one or more personality disorders according to DSM III-R or DSM IV criteria. Personality disorders, and specifically borderline personality disorder, are significantly more common in patients with bulimia nervosa.


CONCLUSIONS
The proportion of eating-disordered patients with co-morbid personality disorder may not be as large as often found in studies. This challenges the understanding of a strong overall connection between the two groups of disorder; however, the connection seems to exist in subsets of eating disorder samples.
Eating Disorders Centre, University Hospital of Aarhus, Psychiatric Hospital for Children and Adolescents, Denmark. kgd@buh.aaa.dk
Kristine
K
Godt
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000856:Anorexia Nervosa / Q000523:psychology; D052018:Bulimia Nervosa / Q000523:psychology; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D001068:Feeding and Eating Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D007406:Interview, Psychological; D008875:Middle Aged; D010554:Personality Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015995:Prevalence; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires