Study links stress to eating disorder onset

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Stress could help trigger the
onset of eating disorders, a new study shows.

The etiology of eating disorders is multifactorial, note
Dr. Luis Rojo of the University of Valencia in Spain and
colleagues in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine. Multiple
factors, including psychological ones, can influence the onset
and development of an eating disorder. Stress is thought to be
an important precursor of eating disorders.

Rojo and his team studied the connection between stress and
eating disorders, as well as the influence of psychological
problems, in 32 teens with eating disorders and 32 matched,
healthy controls from the same community. They interviewed the
teens about life events and difficulties.

Close to half (46.9 percent) of the teens with eating
disorders had some other type of psychiatric disorder, the
researchers found, compared to just 9.4 percent of controls.

Individuals with eating disorders also reported more
difficulties. During the year before eating disorder onset, the
researchers found, the adolescents with eating disorders
reported more acute stressful events, as well as more
accumulation of acute stress.

Stress also appeared to peak in the weeks before the eating
disorder’s onset.

The relationship between stress and eating disorder onset
was stronger among individuals who also had other psychiatric
disorders, the researchers found, suggesting that mental
illness might make people more vulnerable to the effects of
stress.

Individuals who were exposed to at least one stressful
agent were 10 times more likely to have developed an eating
disorder.

“Our results specifically highlight the importance of
severe chronic stress (major difficulties) in the development
of,” the researchers conclude.

SOURCE: Psychosomatic Medicine July/August 2006.