Temperament and character of Polish women with anorexia and bulimia nervosa

AIM: One of the factors influencing eating disorders are personality traits. The authors analyse temperament and character of healthy women. METHOD: The Cloninger Temperament and character Inventory was applied to 52 eating disordered patients (33 with anorexia nervosa and 19 with bulimia nervosa). The patients were divided into subgroups of restrictive type and bulimic types of anorexia, bulimia and bulimic episodes. RESULTS: In all the subgroups of the patients a higher result was obtained on the harm avoidance scale (HA), cooperativeness (C) and the self transcendence ST2 subscale. Lower results were seen in self-directedness (SD) in the SD2, SD3 and SD5 subscales. The subgroups differed in temperament. Bulimia patients noted a higher need for NS stimulation and a higher reward dependence (RD). Anorectic patients had higher results in the persistance scale (P), whilst the restrictive anorectic patients had lower results in the NS1 and RD3 subscales. CONCLUSIONS: The TCI Inventory is a useful tool, helping for a precise measurement of the difference in temperament of anorectic and bulimia patients as compared to their healthy peers.