The Relationship between Eating Disorder and Social Anxiety Disorder from Therapeutic Perspective(Symposium/Mental Disorders Coexisting with Eating Disorders)

Abstract

Relationships between eating disorder and comorbid mood disorder or anxiety disorder have been drawing attention, because studying these comorbidities might facilitate and understanding of the pathogenesis of eating disorder as it has for mood disorder spectrum disorder and obsessive compulsive spectrum disorder. In contrast, few previous studies investigated the relationship between eating disorder and social anxiety disorder (SAD). However, the concept of SAD has dramatically progressed from public speaking phobia into generalized social anxiety disorder (GSAD) during the past decade, and GSAD responses well to psychopharmacology. The current study presents the preliminary analysis in our experiences of treating women with comorbid eating disorder and SAD. Subjects consisted of 266 women with eating disorders. All subjects underwent a direct semi-structured interview including SCID-I and II for DSM-IV. Ninety-one (34%) had comorbid social anxiety disorder, and most of these had GSADs. Onset of SAD preceded eating disorder in all cases. Women with comorbid eating disorder and SAD frequently showed self-mutilation and suicide attempt, and were referred as having borderline personality disorder. However, they showed a favorable course with combination of psychotherapy and psychopharmacology. This preliminary finding suggests the importance of recognizing previously undiagnosed SAD among patients with eating disorder from a therapeutic perspective.