Mood disorders in eating disorder patients: Prevalence and chronology of ONSET

- This study highlights a high prevalence of current and lifetime mood disorders, in particular major depressive disorder, among anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa patients.
- One another important result of this study is the relative chronology for onset of major depressive disorder and eating disorders, which contributes to knowledge about the relationship between these two disorders.

ObjectivesIn a clinical population, we estimated the frequency of mood disorders among 271 patients suffering from Anorexia Nervosa (AN) and Bulimia Nervosa (BN) in comparison to a control group matched for age and gender.MethodThe frequency of mood disorders was measured using the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI), DSM-IV version.ResultsMood disorders were more frequent among eating disorder (ED) patients than among controls, with a global prevalence of the order of 80% for each ED group. The majority of the mood disorders comorbid with ED were depressive disorders (MDD and dysthymia). The relative chronology of onset of these disorders was equivocal, because mood disorders in some cases preceded and in others followed the onset of the eating disorders.LimitationsOur sample was characterized by patients with severe ED and high comorbidities, and thus do not represent the entire population of AN or BN. This also may have resulted in an overestimation of prevalence.ConclusionMood disorders appear significantly more frequently in patients seeking care for ED than in controls.These results have implications for the assessment and treatment of ED patients, and for the aetio-pathogenesis of these disorders.