EATING AND PSYCHIATRIC-SYMPTOMS AS A FUNCTION OF AXIS II COMORBIDITY IN BULIMIC PATIENTS - 3-MONTH AND 6-MONTH RESPONSES AFTER THERAPY

Using DSM-III-R criteria, the authors organized 61 bulimic patients in to ''Borderline,'' ''Other Personality Disorder'' and ''No Personality Disorder'' groups, and then examined eating and comorbid symptoms at 3-month intervals during 6 months of multimodal therapy. Personality-d isorder classifications seemed to predict neither the severity nor res ponsiveness to treatment of bulimic symptoms; all groups showed reliab le and clinically significant improvements in eating habits over time. Conversely, the borderline patients showed reliably more comorbid sym ptoms than did any other group; their scores on disorder-specific dime nsions-like borderline ''traits'' and maladaptive defenses-remained di stinctly elevated throughout treatment. Our findings indicate that 1) a ''borderline/nonborderline'' distinction predicts temporally stable- and theoretically meaningful-differences in comorbid profiles, and 2) there exists an intriguing degree of independence, at least during ong oing treatment, between severity of character pathology and degree of change obtained on eating symptoms. Theoretical and clinical implicati ons are discussed.