The Natural History, Treatment and Prognosis of Anorexia Nervosa, Based on a Study of 38 Patients

Psychopathological Considerations on the Relationship between Bulimia and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

“…In one of the earliest papers, Palmer and Jones [1] considered anorexia nervosa to be a manifestation of compulsive neurosis. Later, in 1954, Kay and Leigh [2] reported obsessive characteristics in quite a large number of anorectic patients. More recently, Toner et al [3,4] reported that 38.5% of restrictor anorectics and 28.6% of bulimic anorectics had a coexisting diagnosis of obsessivecompulsive disorder compared to 12% of the controls.…”

Experimental Investigations of Bodily Perception in Anorexia Nervosa and Obesity

“…The psychopathology of anorexia nervosa has been the subject of some controversy, especially with regard to the question whether or not it is characterized by specific disturbances. For example, several observers (Kay and Leigh, 1954;Meyer, 1971) have con cluded on the basis of the variability of the psychological disturbances that anorexia nervosa is not a 'disease entity' but a set of symptoms secondary to a variety of psychiatric disorders. A contrary view has been put forward by others who have stressed that in spite of some variability in the symptoms, psychologi cal attitudes and emotional disturbances in anorexia nervosa, there is some con stancy in the central psychopathology of this disorder (Russell, 1970;Thoma, 1967).…”

Bulimia nervosa: a placebo controlled double‐blind therapeutic trial of mianserin.

“…Investigation of the psychopathology in several studies has revealed a strong relationship between anorexia nervosa and affective disorder (Kay & Leigh, 1954;Warren, 1968;Cantwell et al, 1977) and two of these studies noted a high rate of affective disorder in families of the study sample (Cantwell et al and Warren). Cantwell stated, 'data suggest a hypothesis that at least some cases of anorexia nervosa may be a variant of affective disorder'.…”