Personality traits in women with anorexia nervosa: Evidence for a treatment-seeking bias?

✍ Scribed by Perkins, Patrick S. ;Klump, Kelly L. ;Iacono, William G. ;McGue, Matt

• Publisher: Wiley (John Wiley & Sons)
• Year: 2004
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 71 KB
• Volume: 37
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0276-3478
• DOI: 10.1002/eat.20064

✦ Synopsis

Objective:

Several personality traits have been associated with anorexia nervosa (an) in treatment-seeking samples of patients. the current study used a population-based sample to compare the personality characteristics of women with an who sought treatment versus those who did not.

Method:

Participants included 27 (14 treatment-seekers, 13 non-treatment-seekers) women with threshold or subthreshold an and 273 (64 treatment seekers, 209 non-treatment seekers) comparison women from the minnesota twin family study. personality was assessed with the higher-order factors and primary scales of the multidimensional personality questionnaire (mpq).

Results:

Non-treatment-seeking women showed lower levels of negative emotionality, stress reaction, and alienation than treatment-seeking women.

Discussion:

These results suggest that personality deviations may be overestimated in treatment-seeking samples.