Temperament and character inventory and pharmacotherapeutic outcome in bulimia nervosa.

OBJECTIVE

To assess the relationship between the personality dimensions measured by the temperament and character inventory (TCI) and pharmacotherapeutic outcome in bulimia nervosa (BN).

METHODS

Thirty female BN patients aged 19.5+/-2.9 years were enrolled to receive 12 weeks' treatment with fluoxetine or buspirone and assessed using the Polish version of the TCI. The personality dimensions of the patients with good and poor treatment responses were compared.

RESULTS

The subjects with a good outcome had a higher self-directedness and lower harm avoidance score; this difference was more pronounced in the fluoxetine-treated subjects. At multiple regression analysis, only self-directedness predicted a good outcome.

DISCUSSION

The results indicate that self-directedness is associated with a good pharmacotherapeutic outcome in BN. This seems to confirm the results of previous studies of the pharmacotherapy of depression and cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) in BN.