Eating disorders and obsessive-compulsive disorder: phenomenological and biological similarities

Eating disorders and obsessive-compulsive disorder share several psychopathological and personality characteristics. Moreover, an increased incidence of comorbid obsessive-compulsive disorder has been observed in patients with anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa. Vice versa, obsessive-compulsive female patients show a greater prevalence rate for eating disorders than that observed in the general population. Therefore, it has been historically suggested that a certain connection may exist between eating disorders and obsessive-compulsive disorder. The present review addresses the phenomenological and biological evidence supporting an association between these two groups of disorders, Curr Opin Psychiatry 13:665-671. (C) 2000 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.