A controlled study of trait narcissism in anorexia and bulimia nervosa.

Int J Eat Disord

Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal, Canada.

Published: September 1997

Introduction: Many theories attribute anorexia and bulimia nervosa to "pathological narcissism," but this conception has not been adequately evaluated.

Method: We compared the scores of 90 eating disorder (ED) sufferers (23 anorexic restricters, 14 anorexic bingers, and 53 bulimics) with those of 36 psychiatric-control (PC) and 54 normal-control (NC) females on validated self-report scales measuring Narcissism, Affective Instability, Stimulus Seeking, Compulsivity, and Restricted Expression.

Results: Narcissism scores of ED patients (whether restricters or bingers/purgers) consistently exceeded those of the PC and NC cases, suggesting that Narcissism does indeed load more heavily in the EDs than in other psychiatric disturbances. Conversely, Affective Instability was characteristic of all clinical cases (i.e., of EDs and PCs), Restricted Expression and Compulsivity were characteristic of restricters, and Stimulus Seeking was characteristic of bingers/purgers.

Discussion: Results are consistent with the notion that different ED variants may reflect subtype-specific temperaments and/or adaptive styles acting-upon shared underlying narcissistic disturbances.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/(sici)1098-108x(199709)22:2<173::aid-eat9>3.0.co;2-cDOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

anorexia bulimia
8
bulimia nervosa
8
affective instability
8
stimulus seeking
8
controlled study
4
study trait
4
narcissism
4
trait narcissism
4
narcissism anorexia
4
nervosa introduction
4

Similar Publications

Background: Currently, we know little regarding how stigma attributed to eating disorders compares to that of other psychological disorders and additionally within different types of eating disorders. In the current study, we aimed to explore the stigmatisation of eating disorders by comparing the stigma attributed to anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge-eating disorder, utilising depression as a comparative control.

Methods: A total of 235 participants from the general population were randomly assigned to an anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge-eating disorder, or depression condition.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Obsessive-compulsive symptoms in individuals with a history of eating disorders.

J Affect Disord

January 2025

Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA; School of Population Health, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia, Australia; Division of Paediatrics, School of Medicine, The University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia. Electronic address:

Background: OCD symptoms are well documented in anorexia nervosa (AN) and to a lesser extent in bulimia nervosa (BN), yet remain virtually unstudied in binge-eating disorder (BED).

Methods: In this cross-sectional observational study, 5927 participants with lifetime eating disorders (EDs) (i.e.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background/objectives: Feeding and eating disorders (FEDs) constitute an important mental health problem today, especially among youngsters. The Sick, Control, One, Fat, Food (SCOFF) questionnaire was developed 25 years ago and remains the most frequently applied screening tool for FEDs among adults and youngsters. The aim of the present study was to translate and adapt the SCOFF questionnaire to the Greek language, using a tertiary-setting adolescent sample.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background/objectives: The primary aim of this study was to characterize athletes approaching an outpatient interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary consultation structure for athletes with a suspected relative energy deficiency in sport (REDs) cross-sectionally and longitudinally to prove treatment efficacy.

Methods: Data of 58 athletes suspected of REDs were collected at the onset (t) and completion (t) of interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary REDs treatment (clinical practice) between January 2019 and December 2022. The data included extracted information from medical records, anthropometric characteristics, physical performance diagnostics, laboratory values, dietary records, and partially gynecological and psychosomatic diagnostics.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Body image concerns are key prognostic and pathogenic factors of anorexia nervosa (AN) and bulimia nervosa (BN). This study aimed to investigate the neural mechanisms underlying body image perception across its two domains of estimation and satisfaction in anorexia and bulimia patients and healthy controls (HC). Systematic searches were conducted across eight databases, including PubMed; Cochrane Library; Ovid; Google Scholar; Sage Journals; Scopus; PsycInfo; and ScienceDirect, from database inception until the 23rd of April 2023.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!