Objective: We designed a controlled study comparing referred women with an eating disorder (ED) to a matched normal control group to answer the following questions: what are the frequencies of anxiety disorders (AD) in anorexia nervosa (AN) and bulimia nervosa (BN), according to DSM-IV criteria? Are AD significantly more frequent among women with an ED than among women from the community?
Method: We assessed frequencies of six specific AD among 271 women with a current diagnosis of AN or BN and 271 controls, using the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI), French DSM-IV version.
Results: Seventy-one percent of both the AN and the BN subjects had a lifetime comorbidity with at least one AD, significantly more (p<0.001) than the percentage of controls with an AD. Prevalence was significantly higher in the ED groups than in controls for most types of AD, and between 41.8% and 53.3% of comorbid cases had an AD preceding the onset of the ED.
Conclusion: Evidence that AD are significantly more frequent in subjects with ED than in the community has important etiological and therapeutic implications.