[Early risk factors of eating disorders--do events of prenatal and perinatal periods bear significance?].

Evidence of the relation of complications occurring in the pregnancy, delivery and neonatal periods to the risk of contracting a subsequent eating disorder has been obtained during recent years. Factors associated with parturition and neonatal period seem to predict both anorexia and bulimia, whereas disorders during pregnancy are more clearly associated with the descendant's anorexia. This difference may play an important role in the pathogenesis of the disorders.