ABSTRACT

Objectives of review. The objective of this chapter is to examine the current state of research on personality traits, personality disorders, and personality subtypes in eating disorders (EDs).

Summary of recent findings. Personality pathology, whether relatively mild or severe, is nearly ubiquitous in ED patients. Patients with EDs tend to have problems with negative affect, whether allied with perfectionism, anxious obsessionality, and overcontrol of impulses and emotions (often seen in restricting anorexia); or with emotional dysregulation, rejection sensitivity, and undercontrol of impulses and emotions (often seen in patients with bulimic symptoms, with or without anorexic features). Data using several methods have converged on three personality subtypes that appear to cut across different ED diagnoses, but have implications for understanding and treating patients with EDs.

Future directions. Although data are converging on several key constructs in the study of personality in EDs, different measures may be tapping different constructs or subconstructs, suggesting the need for research employing a range of measures of similar constructs in the same sample. Given the ubiquity of personality pathology in EDs and data suggesting that personality may moderate treatment response, it would seem prudent for all treatment research on EDs to assess personality carefully and to consider personality variables when constructing treatments for EDs.