Am J Psychiatry 1990; 147:1184-1188
Copyright © 1990 by American Psychiatric Association
Relation of clinical variables to dissociative phenomena in eating disorders
MA Demitrack, FW Putnam, TD Brewerton, HA Brandt and PW Gold
Unit on Eating Disorders, NIMH, Bethesda, Md.
In this study 30 female patients with eating disorders were compared with
30 age-matched normal female subjects. The patients demonstrated
significantly higher levels of dissociative psychopathology than the
comparison subjects. Furthermore, the presence of severe dissociative
experience appeared to be specifically related to a propensity for self-
mutilation and suicidal behavior. These findings are discussed in light of
recent data which suggest that neurochemical systems shown to be abnormal
in patients with eating disorders may be key pathophysiologic substrates
for dissociative experience.
