Eating disorder behaviors linked to suicide risks.

2004 JUN 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A study of Swiss women with eating disorders suggests that those who binge and purge are more likely to have attempted suicide in the past, regardless of whether they have been diagnosed with anorexia nervosa, bulimia or another eating disorder.

Women with anorexia, however, are more likely to have suicidal thoughts than those with bulimia or other disorders, said Gabriella Milos, MD, and colleagues at the University Hospital in Zurich. Their study appears in the journal General Hospital Psychiatry.

The researchers also found that most of the women in the study had other psychiatric disorders besides an eating disorder, including depression, drug or alcohol abuse or fearfulness or anxiety. Almost 84% of the patients had at least one other psychiatric problem.

Milos and colleagues said the link between purging and suicidal attempts might be due to a lack of impulse control, which would affect both behaviors.

The higher prevalence of suicidal thoughts among women with anorexia could point to a different phenomenon, they said. Women in the study who reported suicidal thoughts tended to be much younger when their eating disorder ...