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Psychiatric Comorbidities among Female Adolescents with Anorexia Nervosa

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Abstract

This study investigated current comorbid Axis I diagnoses associated with Anorexia Nervosa (AN) in adolescents. The sample included 101 female adolescents treated at a psychiatric unit for primary DSM-IV diagnoses of AN. 73.3% of the AN patients were diagnosed as having a current comorbidity of at least one comorbid Axis I diagnosis, with no differences across AN subtypes. Mood disorders (60.4%) were most commonly identified, followed by the category anxiety disorders without obsessive-compulsive disorders (OCD) (25.7%), OCD (16.8%) and substance use disorders (7.9%). Two specific diagnoses differed across the two subtypes of AN. Substance use disorder was 18 times, and the category anxiety disorder without OCD was three times as likely to co-occur with AN binge-eating disorder and purging type than with AN restricting type. Clinicians should be alerted to the particularly high rate of psychiatric comorbidities in adolescents suffering from AN.

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Acknowledgment

This project was funded by the Stiftung RTL- Wir helfen Kindern e.V. The authors would like to thank the adolescents who participated in the project.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatic and Psychotherapy, Charité, Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Augustenburger Platz 1, 13353, Berlin, Germany

    Harriet Salbach-Andrae, Klaus Lenz, Nicole Simmendinger, Nora Klinkowski, Ulrike Lehmkuhl & Ernst Pfeiffer

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  1. Harriet Salbach-Andrae
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  2. Klaus Lenz
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  3. Nicole Simmendinger
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Correspondence to Harriet Salbach-Andrae.

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Salbach-Andrae, H., Lenz, K., Simmendinger, N. et al. Psychiatric Comorbidities among Female Adolescents with Anorexia Nervosa. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev 39, 261–272 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-007-0086-1

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