Trauma and dissociative experiences in eating disorders

This study investigates the relationship between trauma, dissocia-tive experiences, and eating psychopathology in a group of eating disorder patients. TheDissociation Questionnaire (DIS-Q) and a semi-structured interview were used to assess 106 eating disorder patients at the start of an inpatient treatment program. DIS-Q scores were evaluated for the eating disorder patients and compared with the scores of 20 schizophrenic patients and 112 high school graduating students (controls). Of the eating disorder patients, 45.2 % report-ed traumatic experiences. The highest trauma rate was reported by patients with bulimic symptoms. Significant differences were found in the prevalence of traumatic experiences between eating disorder patients and control subjects, but not between eating disorder and schizophrenic patients. The highest total DIS-Q scores were detected in bulimia nervosa and anorexia nervosa binge eating/purging type patients; the lowest DIS-Q scores were found in patients with binge eating disorder, schizophrenia, and controls. Eating disorder patients, in comparison with schizophrenic patients, reported sig-nificantly higher scores in identity confusion, loss of control, and absorption. However, the only dissociative features which seems to link trauma, dissociation, and eating disorders are identity con-fusion and loss of control, since absorp tion is not sensitive to the presence/absence of trauma