Background. The purpose of this study was to assess clinical
characteristics, including co-morbid
personality disorders in patients with both anorexia nervosa (AN) and obsessive–compulsive
disorder (OCD) in comparison with age- and sex-matched patients with OCD.
Methods. Fifty-three female patients with AN were divided into
two groups based on the presence
or absence of a current diagnosis of OCD, as assessed by the Structured
Clinical Interview for
DSM-III-R Patient version (SCID-P). Twenty-one women (40%) who met the
DSM-III-R criteria
for both AN and OCD were compared with 23 female patients with OCD, using
the Yale-Brown
Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS) and the SCID Axis II disorders.
Results. There were no significant differences on the mean
Y-BOCS severity scores between these
groups. However, AN patients with OCD were significantly more likely than
OCD patients to have
obsessions with need for symmetry or exactness and ordering/arranging
compulsions, whereas both
aggressive obsessions and checking compulsions tended to be more frequently
identified in OCD
patients compared with AN patients with OCD. AN patients with OCD were
significantly more
likely than OCD patients to meet the criteria for obsessive–compulsive
personality disorder
(OCPD).
Conclusions. These results suggest that there are some differential
characteristics of the OCD
symptomatology between these disorders, although many patients with AN
manifest significant
impairment from primary OCD symptoms with similar magnitude in severity
to that found in OCD
patients.