The relationship between sexual abuse and eating pathology.

OBJECTIVE: The present study examined whether patients with histories of sexual abuse reported a higher degree of pathological eating behaviors and attitudes than a nonsexually abused control group.

METHOD: Subjects, 134 psychiatric inpatients, completed the Eating Disorder Inventory (EDI) to assess eating pathology, and a questionnaire that gathered information regarding sexual abuse experiences.

RESULTS: A logistic regression model found that a complex of EDI subscales was significantly related to a history of childhood abuse. Exploratory analyses found that survivors of sexual abuse obtained higher scores on the EDI subscales scores of Drive for Thinness, Interpersonal Distrust, Perfectionism, and Interoceptive Awareness. Further, the mean score for sexual abuse survivors without an eating disorder on the majority of EDI subscales was above established means for eating-disordered groups.

DISCUSSION: These findings suggest that inpatients with a history of sexual abuse are likely to present with eating disorder symptomatology.