Predictive factors of social disability in patients with eating disorders.

OBJECTIVE

The study was designed to assess whether social avoidance symptoms and/or comorbid anxiety disorders were predictive factors of social disability in subjects with eating disorders.

METHOD: Sixty-three subjects with anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa were assessed for lifetime diagnoses of anxiety disorders, childhood history of separation anxiety disorder, social avoidance symptoms and social disability.

RESULTS

On the Groningen Social Disabilities Schedule, 86% of the anorexics and 65% of the bulimics had disability regarding the 'social role', and 86% and 61 % disability regarding the 'occupational role'. Using all subsets logistic regression analyses, predictive factors of disability were: (1) for the social role, social avoidance symptom score (p<0.002) and diagnosis of separation anxiety disorder (p<0.01); (2) for the occupational role, number of lifetime anxiety disorders (p<0.01) and diagnosis of separation anxiety disorder (p<0.06).

DISCUSSION: Recognizing and treating comorbid anxiety disorders in subjects with eating disorders could improve social adaptation and global psychopathological outcome.