Objective: The current study aimed to investigate the relation between personality disorders and symptoms of both eating disorders and general psychopathology over time.
Method: Seventy-four patients, with a mean age of 30 years and admitted to a hospital for treatment of a chronic eating disorder, were assessed using the Eating Disorder Inventory (EDI), the Eating Disorder Examination (EDE), the Symptom Check List-90-Revised (SCL-90-R), and the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis II disorders (SCID-II) at admission, and after 1 and 2 years.
Results: At the 2-year follow-up, there was considerable reduction in both personality and symptoms (effect size = 0.83-0.94). Panel modeling using structural equation modeling techniques indicated that symptomatic changes generally preceded changes in the personality disorder.
Discussion: Eating disorder symptoms and general symptomatology had direct effects on a dimensional personality disorder index. Thus, personality disorders may be at least partially a consequence of general symptomatology in chronic eating disorders. Symptom improvement appears to precede changes in personality in this sample of patients with chronic eating disorders.
2005 by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.