Outcome of anorexia nervosa: Eating attitudes, personality, and parental bonding

Background: We examined eating attitudes, personality, and parental bonding in women with a history of anorexia nervosa stratified by degree of recove ry in comparison to randomly selected controls. We were interested in the d istinguishing characteristics of re covery and of chronic anorexia nervosa. Method: All female new referrals to an earing disorders service between Ja nuary 1, 1981 and December 31, 1984 with probable or definite anorexia nerv osa were eligible for inclusion. 86.4% of these women ("cases") were locate d and agreed to participate. The control group was a random community sampl e. All subjects were interviewed with a structured diagnostic instrument an d completed a battery of psychological inventories including the Eating Dis order Inventory (EDI) the Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire (TFEQ), the Tem perament and Character Inventory (TCl), and the Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI). Results: We divided the anorexia follow-up sample into full recover y (n = 21), partial recovery (n = 34), and chronically ill (n = 15) and com pared them to community controls (n = 98). The chronically ill group was di stinguished by a lower desired body mass index (BMI), higher cognitive rest raint on the TFEQ, higher Drive for Thinness and Bulimia on the EDI, lower maternal and paternal care on the PBI, and high harm avoidance and low self -directedness on the TCl. The full recovery group scored high on self-direc tedness and cooperativeness on the TCl. Conclusions: The domains of persona lity, character, and parental bonding differ among categories of recovery i n anorexia nervosa. Whether these differences contribute to recovery or eme rge during recovery or lark thereof remains an unanswered question. (C) 200 0 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.