Disordered Eating Behaviors in Other Psychiatric Disorders

In the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) [1], disordered eating is not explicitly listed in the criteria for the diagnosis of schizophrenia. However, “a lack of interest in eating or food refusal” is reported in the “Associated Features Supporting Diagnosis.” Even though disorganized eating behaviors did not formally make the list, the relationship between peculiarities in nutritional patterns and psychoses has long been observed and highlighted. Emil Kraepelin, in his book Dementia Praecox and Paraphrenia [2], recalls how the “taking of food” may fluctuate “from complete refusal to the greatest voracity,” while Eugen Bleuler, in his Textbook of Psychiatry [3], highlighted a tendency of schizophrenics “to swallow all kinds of things.”

Disordered eating behaviors are highly prevalent in many psychiatric disorders. In this chapter, we describe the most recent literature evidence demonstrating which eating symptoms have been found to correlate with each disease. Disordered eating occurs in schizophrenia, bipolar disorders, depressive disorders, anxiety disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorders, dissociative disorders, sleep-wake disorders, and personality disorders (especially in borderline personality disorders) to different extents. In the following paragraphs, we aim to describe this relationship.