Citation

Kent A, Goddard KL, van den Berk PA, Raphael FJ, McCluskey SE, Lacey JH. Acta Psychiatr. Scand. 1997; 95(2): 140-144.

Affiliation

Department of Mental Health Sciences, St George's Hospital Medical School, London, UK.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1997, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

9065679

Abstract

Measures of abnormal eating behaviour in 48 women referred for psychiatric assessment following an act of deliberate self-poisoning (subjects) were compared with those in 50 women attending an accident and emergency department following minor accidental injury (controls). Disordered eating behaviour was significantly more prevalent in the subject group, even when the effect of depression was removed. Four subjects fulfilled the diagnostic criteria for bulimia nervosa, but none of the subjects met the diagnostic criteria for anorexia nervosa. The prevalence of obesity was the same in both subject and control groups. The degree of abnormal eating was very strongly correlated with a measure of inwardly directed irritability in both subjects and controls, and was strongly associated with measures of impulsiveness, outwardly directed irritability and anxiety in subjects.

Language: en