Coping strategies in eating disorders

Abstract

Objective The present article describes the coping strategies of patients with eating disorders (ED), their relation with determined personality characteristics and the specificity of strategies in comparison with a control group and a group of patients with other mental disorders. Method Ninety‐three patients with ED, 73 university psychology and nutrition students and 74 patients with other mental disorders were studied using the Coping Strategies Inventory (CSI) and the Inventory for the Assessment of Personality Disorders (IA‐TP). Results Patients with ED presented more self‐criticism, social withdrawal, inadequate emotion‐focused management and general inadequate management if they were compared to the student sample and more self‐criticism than patients with other mental disorders. Anorexic patients obtained higher scores at self‐criticism, convincing, respectful and sensitive personality while bulimic patients scored more at impulsivity. Adequate management positively correlated with a sociable personality and negatively with an introverted one. Inadequate management was associated with introverted and inhibited personalities. The cluster analysis suggested two groups of patients: the first one presented greater self‐criticism, wishful thinking, social withdrawal, inadequate emotion‐focused management and general inadequate management; the second one had greater scores at problem solving, perceived self‐efficacy, adequate problem‐focused management and general adequate management. Discussion Findings suggest that coping strategies can play, along with personality features, an important part in the classification of eating disorders, and also in its prognostic and treatment. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and Eating Disorders Association.