Abstract
Few studies on the outcome of patients with eating disorders associated with alcoholism have appeared in the literature. This report is the first comparative study on the results of treatment for eating disorders with and without alcoholism. The subjects were 42 females with eating disorders with alcoholism and 88 without alcoholism. They were 30 years old or younger, admitted to Kurihama National Hospital in 1990-1998 and subjected to semi-structured interviews concerning symptoms of eating disorders, alcohol dependent syndromes, and other psychiatric disorders. The survey was conducted from October to December 2000 by interview, mail or telephone. Seventy-eight percent of the subjects responded to the survey, and the mean follow-up period was 4.6 years. The subjects with eating disorders and alcoholism were clinically different from those without alcoholism at first admission. The former were older, had more personality disorders, had more experience of marriage and divorce and had less anorexia nervosa restricting type than the latter. At follow-up, a quarter of the subjects with alcoholism had recovered from eating disorders but a quarter of them had died. On the other hand, a quarter of the subjects without alcoholism had recovered from eating disorders and a quarter of them had shifted to the mild form. Many of the subjects with alcoholism experienced divorces and continued problem drinking. The outcome for patients with eating disorders with alcoholism was worse than that for those without alcoholism. A common factor for a good outcome for patients with and without alcoholism was less vomiting among the eating disorder symptoms.
