Eating disorders during the adolescence: personality characteristics associated with anorexia and bulimia nervosa.

INTRODUCTION

Previous studies provide relevant information about the relationship between personality and eating disorders (ED). The involvement of personality factors in the etiology and maintenance of ED indicates the need of emphasizing the study of the adolescent's personality when diagnosed of ED.

OBJECTIVES

The aims of this study were to analyze the adolescent's personality profiles that differ significantly in anorexia nervosa (AN) and bulimia nervosa (BN), and to explore the most common profiles and their associations with those subtypes of eating disorders (ED).

METHODS

A total of 104 patients with AN and BN were studied by means of the Millon Adolescent Clinical Inventory (MACI).

RESULTS

The personality profiles that differ significantly in both AN and BN were submissive, egotistic, unruly, forceful, conforming, oppositional, self-demeaning and borderline. The most frequent profiles in AN were conforming (33.33%), egotistic (22.72%) and dramatizing (18.18%) while in the case of BN those profiles were unruly (18.42%), submissive (18.42%) and borderline (15.78%). We did not find any associations between the diagnostic subgroup (AN, BN) and the fact of having personality profiles that could become dysfunctional.

CONCLUSIONS

Bearing in mind these results, it may be concluded that there are relevant differences between personality profiles associated with AN and BN during adolescence, so tailoring therapeutic interventions for this specific population would be important.