Anorexia nervosa and schizophrenia

✍ Scribed by Ferguson, James M. ;Damluji, Namir F.

• Publisher: Wiley (John Wiley & Sons)
• Year: 1988
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 574 KB
• Volume: 7
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0276-3478
• DOI: 10.1002/1098-108x(198805)7:3<343::aid-eat2260070305>3.0.co;2-3

✦ Synopsis

The authors present 12 patients who met the DSM-//I diagnostic criteria for both anorexia nervosa and schizophrenia. The negative symptoms of schizophrenia were prominent, and the patients had an unremitting course for the eating disorder. The coincidence of anorexia and schizophrenia is discussed.

Many authors have speculated about the coincident occurrence of schizophrenia and anorexia nervosa. Dubois (1913) described a case of an anorexic woman who later became schizophrenic. Nicolle (1938) published a paper entitled "Prepsychotic Anorexia" and raised the question: "Should we consider this an early form of dementia praecox?" Janet's case of Nadia (1907) and Binswanger's case description of Ellen West (1958), a young woman who apparently had simple schizophrenia and the anorexic syndrome, support these early formulations.

These early case reports are suggestive but lack clear-cut diagnostic criteria for both anorexia nervosa and schizophrenia. More recently, large-outcome studies have described enough patients to give an indication of the percentage of the patients presenting with this eating disorder who are coincidentally or subsequently diagnosed as having schizophrenia. These studies are: