PERSONALITY-CHARACTERISTICS OF EATING-DISORDERED PATIENTS AS IDENTIFIED BY THE MILLON CLINICAL MULTIAXIAL INVENTORY

The Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (MCMI) was used to determine the overall prevalence of personality disorders and profile characteristics in three groups of eating-disordered patients (17 anorexics, 58 bulimics, and 12 patients who met criteria for both bulimia and anorexia [bulimics with anorexia]). Eighty-four percent of all subjects were diagnosed as having a personality disorder according to the MCMI (BR > 84). Frequency data were used to compare the personality characteristics of the three groups. Bulimic subjects had significantly higher frequencies of dependent and histrionic MCMI personality disorder diagnoses and a significantly lower rate of schizoid personality disorder diagnoses than the other two groups. The anorexics and bulimics with anorexia evidenced higher frequency of avoidant MCMI personality diagnoses than did the bulimics. The results are discussed in terms of their clinical implications and directions for future research.