[Mood and anxiety disorders in relatives of anorexia nervosa patients: a review].

UNLABELLED

In the literature, no review concerning the family comorbidity of mood and anxiety disorders of anorexic subjects exists. However, this data can be important for the comprehension of this disorder and for the assumption of responsibility.

OBJECTIVE

We conducted a critical literature review on studies assessing the prevalence of anxiety disorders (AD) and mood disorders in relatives of anorexia nervosa (AN) subjects. In the first part, we discuss methodological issues relevant to these comorbidity studies. In the second part, taking into account the methodological considerations raised, we summarise the findings of these studies.

METHOD

We performed a manual and computerised search (Medline) for all published studies on the frequency of MD and AD in AN relatives and MD or AD, limiting our search to the 1980-2002 period, in order to get sufficiently homogeneous diagnostic criteria for both categories of disorders (most often RDC, DSM III, DSM III-R, or DSM IV criteria).

RESULTS

We review methodological issues regarding population sources, general methodological procedures, diagnostic criteria for AN, MD and AD, diagnostic instruments, age of subjects and course of the eating disorder.

DISCUSSION

We discuss the results taking into account the methodological problems observed. We give implications for reviewing the results of published studies and planning future research.