Both anorexia mentalis and bulimia nervosa are types of eating disorder (F 50.)
Anorexia is a disorder characterized by deliberate loss of body weight.
Bulimia is a disorder featured by repeated attacks of excessive eating as well as preoccupation with body weight. Obsessive-compulsive disorder is qualified by recurrent obsessive thoughts and/or actions which repeatedly appear in ones’ mind.
A display of a 25 year old female with an eating disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder conjoint on the basis of an anancastic personality, followed by combination of pharmacotherapeutic and psychotherapeutic treatment.
Psychiatric interview, psychological tests (personality test, IQ evaluation test), psychiatric treatment (individual psychodynamic therapy, family therapy; support therapy.) At the beginning of the treatment, the patient had low body weigh (BMI 18), was depressed and dysfunctional, further to occasional bulimic behavior and obsessive-compulsive behavior. Previously she had been treated with antidepressants and basal neuroleptics, clinically and in a dispensary, for a year. After successfully creating a contact and forming a therapeutic alliance, she was submitted to an individual psychiatric treatment as well as family therapy. In addition, pharmacotherapy, which included small doses of atypical neuroleptic and a tricyclic antidepressant, was introduced.
During the first two months of treatment, the subject's body weight increased (BMI 18), symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder disappeared, depressive symptoms reduced, and functionality restored. The patient is still being psychiatrically treated.
Different types of obsessive-compulsive disorder may be developed in an anancastic personality at the same time. However, this does not obstruct psychotherapeutic nor pharmacotherapeutic treatment.