Anxiety, Obsessive-Compulsive, and Depressive Symptom Presentation and Change Throughout Routine Eating Disorder Treatment

Mina Velimirović; Morgan Robison; Sophie Abber; Alan Duffy; Renee D Rienecke; Jamie Manwaring; Dan V Blalock; Megan Riddle; Philip S Mehler; Thomas E Joiner

doi:10.1002/erv.3160

Anxiety, Obsessive-Compulsive, and Depressive Symptom Presentation and Change Throughout Routine Eating Disorder Treatment

Eur Eat Disord Rev. 2024 Nov 28. doi: 10.1002/erv.3160. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Mina Velimirović^{1

2}, Morgan Robison², Sophie Abber², Alan Duffy³, Renee D Rienecke^{3

4}, Jamie Manwaring^{3

5

6}, Dan V Blalock^{7

8}, Megan Riddle^{5

9}, Philip S Mehler^{3

5

6}, Thomas E Joiner²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychology, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Novi Sad, Novi Sad, Serbia.
² Department of Psychology, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida, USA.
³ Eating Recovery Center and Pathlight Mood and Anxiety Center, Denver, Colorado, USA.
⁴ Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
⁵ ACUTE Center for Eating Disorders, Denver Health, Denver, Colorado, USA.
⁶ Department of Internal Medicine, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Denver, Colorado, USA.
⁷ Center of Innovation to Accelerate Discovery and Practice Transformation, Durham Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina, USA.
⁸ Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, North Carolina, USA.
⁹ Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA.

PMID: 39609357
DOI: 10.1002/erv.3160

Abstract

Objective: The present study examined whether patients with binge/purge and restricting anorexia nervosa (AN-BP and AN-R), bulimia nervosa (BN), binge eating disorder (BED), avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID), and other specified feeding and eating disorder (OSFED) differ in generalised anxiety disorder (GAD), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and depression symptom patterns and overall comorbid symptom severity at admission. We also assessed between-group differences in the patterns of change and overall comorbid symptom severity change from admission to discharge from routine eating disorder (ED) treatment at higher levels of care (HLOC).

Method: The initial sample included 3730 adults routinely assessed for GAD, depression, and OCD at admission and discharge from treatment.

Results and conclusions: ED diagnostic groups exhibited somewhat different symptom patterns (e.g., AN-R and ARFID were more prone to GAD and OCD than depression symptoms; BED exhibited the opposite pattern) and overall symptom severity at admission (i.e., AN-BP and OSFED had the highest overall comorbid symptom severity; BED had the lowest). Although the overall symptom improvement was significantly greater in ARFID and BED than in AN-BP, AN-R, and OSFED, ED patients collectively and within each diagnostic group improved significantly in GAD, OCD, and depression symptoms following routine ED treatment at HLOC.

Keywords: depression; eating disorders; generalised anxiety disorder; obsessive‐compulsive disorder; symptom improvement.

Abstract

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