Parental representation in eating disorder patients with suicide

Objective: We examined parental, personality, and symptomatological charact eristics in relation to suicide attempts among eating disorder patients. Me thods: Fifty-one eating disorder inpatients, divided into two groups accord ing to lifetime suicide attempts, and 107 non-psychiatric subjects were com pared on the following variables: Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI), Global Clinical Score (GCS), Eating Disorder Inventory-91 (EDI-91), Eating Attitu des Test-26 (EAT), clinical and personality characteristics, and family bac kgrounds. Results: Suicidal patients reported significantly higher overprot ection by both parents than nonsuicidal patients and non-psychiatric subjec ts. Suicidal patients had a more prevalent history of child abuse, affectiv e instability, unstable self-image, avoidance of abandonment, maladaptive p erfectionism, personality disorder, and mood disorder. There were no differ ences in symptomatological factors or the severity of the eating disorders. Conclusion: The results suggest that high overprotection is associated wit h suicidal behaviour in eating disorder patients. The association between o verprotective parenting and personality characteristics, and methods of sui cide prevention are discussed briefly. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Inc. All r ights reserved.