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The comorbidity of personality disorders in eating disorders: a meta-analysis

Eating and Weight Disorders - Studies on Anorexia, Bulimia and Obesity volume 22, pages 201–209 (2017)Cite this article

Abstract

Purpose

The present meta-analysis summarized the proportion of comorbid personality disorders (PDs) in patients with anorexia (AN) and bulimia nervosa (BN), respectively, and examined possible moderating variables.

Methods

A search of the databases PsychINFO, Embase, and Medline for the period 1980–2016 identified 87 studies from 18 different countries.

Results

The mean proportion of PDs among patients with any type of eating disorder (ED) was .52 compared to .09 in healthy controls. There were no statistically significant differences between AN (.49) and BN (.54) in proportions of any PD or PD clusters except for obsessive-compulsive PD (.23 vs .12 in AN and BN, respectively).

Conclusions

Both ED diagnoses had a similar comorbidity profile with a high prevalence of borderline and avoidant PDs. Moderator analyses conducted for any ED and any PD yielded significant differences for diagnostic systems with respect to EDs, method for assessing PD as well as patient weight and age.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Regional Center for Child and Youth Mental Health and Child Welfare (RKBU-Nord), UiT The Arctic University of Norway, 9037, Tromsø, Norway

    Monica Martinussen & Sabine Kaiser

  2. Department of Psychology, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway

    Oddgeir Friborg, Karl Tore Øvergård, Anna-Lena Neunhoeffer & Jan H. Rosenvinge

  3. Department of Psychiatric Research, University Hospital of North Norway, Tromsø, Norway

    Oddgeir Friborg

  4. Central Institute of Mental Health, University of Heidelberg, Mannheim, Germany

    Phöbe Schmierer

  5. Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Department of Clinical Medicine, Oslo University Hospital, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

    Egil W. Martinsen

Authors
  1. Monica Martinussen
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  2. Oddgeir Friborg
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  3. Phöbe Schmierer
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  4. Sabine Kaiser
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  5. Karl Tore Øvergård
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  6. Anna-Lena Neunhoeffer
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  7. Egil W. Martinsen
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  8. Jan H. Rosenvinge
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Monica Martinussen.

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Funding

This study was funded by the Department of Psychology, UiT The Arctic University of Norway.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.

Informed consent

Since this is a meta-analysis, informed consent statement was not obtained. No primary data were collected from participants.

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Martinussen, M., Friborg, O., Schmierer, P. et al. The comorbidity of personality disorders in eating disorders: a meta-analysis. Eat Weight Disord 22, 201–209 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40519-016-0345-x

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Keywords

  • Personality disorders
  • Anorexia nervosa
  • Bulimia nervosa
  • Meta-analysis
  • Comorbidity