Emotional neglect as the colossus among traumas in patients with eating disorders. A case-control study

Introduction Individuals with eating disorders (EDs) often report a history of early traumatization. Although a great attention has been paid to sexual and physical trauma, less is known about emotional one, especially neglect. Objectives/aims We aimed to estimate the prevalence of sexual, physical, and emotional trauma–occurring under 18 years of age–in ED patients vs. healthy controls, focusing on emotional abuse and neglect. Methods We consecutively recruited 57 DSM-V ED outpatients (91.2% females; age range = 18–42 years) at the Psychiatric Outpatient Clinic of our University Hospital and 90 healthy controls (78.9% females; age range = 20–39 years). Among ED patients, 43.9% had restrictive anorexia nervosa (AN), 29.8% binge/purging AN, 26.3% bulimia nervosa. Individuals completed the Eating Disorder Inventory-2 (EDI-2) and the Traumatic Experiences Checklist (TEC). We used Mann-Whitney U test and χ 2 test for comparisons. Results ED patients scored significantly higher than controls on all EDI-2 subscales ( P -values  Conclusions Our findings show a high prevalence of emotional trauma in EDs, mainly neglect, i.e., a lack of care and attention potentially contributing to EDs. Thus, it is crucial to investigate emotional neglect in ED patients.