Anorexia nervosa secondary to an obsessive-compulsive disorder in an adult man with predominant symptoms of scrupulosity

Abstract

It is described the clinical case of a young adult male patient with obsessivecompulsive disorder (OCD) diagnosis, whose main symptomatology lies in obsessive ideas and religious rituals (scrupulosity), aimed at fasting, restricting food intake and losing significant weight (initial body mass index [BMI] of 17.1). We discuss the presence of anorexia nervosa secondary to OCD, it is described the relationships between the two pathologies, the relevance of the dual diagnosis in this case, and the particularities and the challenges of the intervention from the exposure techniques to the prevention response of the cognitive behavioral therapy. After 20 weeks of treatment, the results show the effectiveness of the intervention, with a significant decrease (48%) in obsessive-compulsive symptoms, according to the Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale, and nutritional recovery, reaching a body weight according to his height and age (BMI = 22.3). It is concluded that, in cases such as the one described, there is the need to work both the eating and obsessive symptoms simultaneously, based on a treatment with multimodal and multidisciplinary approach.