Eating disorders and general psychopathology: a comparison between young adult patients and normal controls with and without self-reported eating problems.

Aim To investigate general psychopathology among women with DSM-IV confirmed eating disorders (ED) and women from the general population with and without self-reported eating disorder problems. Method Ninety-six ED patients between 18 and 26 years (M = 21.59, SD = 2.01) were compared with 265 randomly chosen age-matched controls (M = 20.99, SD = 2.01) with the Symptom Check List-90 (SCL-90). Result ED patients scored significantly higher on all subscales compared with women without self-reported eating problems, and higher on several scales compared to women reporting previous eating problems. There were no differences between ED patients and controls with current eating problems. Women with self-reported eating disorder problems scored significantly higher than women without such problems on all scales except for ‘phobic anxiety’. Discussion Increased psychopathology in both ED patients and women with self-reported eating problems suggests that general psychopathology is related to eating disturbances per se, and not only to being a psychiatric patient. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and Eating Disorders Association. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]