ABSTRACT
The distinctive clinical features of patients who have both an eating disorder and type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) were initially highlighted in a number of case reports published in the 1970s and early 1980s. Bruch published the first case description in 1973. The patient, who suffered from AN and T1DM, was described as having “serious medical complications” following poor treatment compliance (Bruch 1973). Subsequent case studies (Fairburn and Steel 1980; Garner 1980; Gomez et al. 1980) were added to by reports of the cooccurrence of BN with T1DM (Hudson et al. 1985). These reports were followed by a number of prevalence studies investigating whether or not clinical eating disorders are more common in young women with T1DM than in non-diabetic women (Fairburn et al. 1991; Jones et al. 2000). More recently, a small but growing number of longitudinal studies aimed towards exploring the clinical and psychological course of these patients have been conducted (Bryden et al. 1999; Peveler et al. in press; Rydall et al. 1997).
