I have borrowed the image of walls and bridges separating and connecting the two ยฎelds of ED and PTSD from John Lennon who published a record entitled Walls and Bridges in 1974. A child troubled by parental losses and overprotection, Lennon became `The Fat Beatle' who reputedly died a restrictive anorectic at the gun of a deranged (and obese) fan.
At ยฎrst glance PTSD and ED seem to be divided by concrete walls': there is not one single diagnostic criterion bridging' them. In fact, PTSD is conceptualized currently as an anxiety disorder resulting from a traumatic event that persists in the mind as an oscillation between reexperience and avoidance of traumatic thoughts and feelings, along with autonomic activation. Its prevalence in the general population is estimated between 1 and 3.5 per cent (Helzer et al., 1987).
I know I am risking being accused of nationalism but I would like to quote ยฎrstly a study by Favaro et al. (in press), who screened 51 Italian Nazi concentration camp survivors for Binge Eating (BED) and PTSD. Lifetime BED was found in 33 per cent of cases, current BED in 14 per cent. Lifetime PTSD rates were 35.3 per cent, current 25.5 per cent. Although BED was more frequent in subjects with PTSD (39 per cent versus 30 per cent non-PTSD) the two disorders were not signiยฎcantly associated. The Authors commented that both BED and PTSD were still clinically relevant some 50 years after internment. Interestingly, they also noticed in the survivors `persistent and speciยฎc thoughts about food and eating'.
Might food-related `intrusive' thoughts be a psychopathological bridge between ED and PTSD? Looking at a non-clinical population (3006 female subjects) Dansky et al. (1997) screened for victimized and traumatized subjects CCC 1072ยฑ4133/99/010071ยฑ03$17.50