Am J Psychiatry 1985; 142:328-332
Copyright © 1985 by American Psychiatric Association
Anorexia nervosa and depression: a dissenting view
KZ Altshuler and MF Weiner
The frequency of depressive symptoms in anorexic patients, the response of
some anorexic patients to antidepressants or ECT, the occurrence of
comparable physiologic abnormalities in major depression and anorexia
nervosa, and family studies of incidence increasingly link depression and
anorexia in the literature. A review of the problems in making this linkage
shows that the possibility of anorexia nervosa as a depressive equivalent
or a depressive spectrum disorder must be seriously questioned.
