A family study of anorexia nervosa and bulimia.

A family study is presented that examines the association between eating disorders and affective illness. 307 relatives of 30 eating disorder patients, of 16 patients with major depression, and of 20 normal controls, were interviewed to determine lifetime histories of psychiatric illness. Using logistic regression analyses, the results supported previous findings of a familial association between eating disorders and major depression. However, there was no evidence that clinical features of eating disorder patients (presence of bulimia or major depression) can be used to predict morbid risk. In addition, the results failed to reveal a familial aggregation of either alcoholism or drug abuse in eating disorder families.