Comorbidity of Body-Dysmorphia Related Disorders

Body dysmorphia is a pandemic that primarily impacts young girls. Body dysmorphia is defined as disordered thoughts and perceptions of one's own body. It can result in disordered eating (i.e. anorexia, bulimia) and disordered behaviour where an individual essentially becomes addicted to exercising. Researchers were interested in examining the extent to which these disorders co-occur in individuals. They hypothesized that exercise addiction would occur more in individuals that have an already existing eating disorder, as compared to individuals who do not have an eating disorder.

Researchers conducted a meta analysis to compare rates of eating disorders and rates of exercise addiction. They also looked at studies that specifically examined exercise addiction within individuals who have an eating disorder. This study had a sample size of 2140 participants, 400 of which were diagnosed with an eating disorder.

The study found that exercise addiction is 3x more likely to occur with an eating disorder than in those without an eating disorder. The findings of this study are important for clinical use, as this allows us to better characterize the way in which body dysmorphia presents itself. We tend to believe that individuals who have body dysmorphia will resort to restrictive eating, but we don’t usually characterize excessive exercise as a form of body dysmorphia. More research needs to be conducted on the comorbidity of these disorders, ways in which we can better treat them together, and the ways in which we can screen individuals for body dysmorphic thoughts and behaviours.

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Source:

• Trott, M., Jackson, S. E., Firth, J., Jacob, L., Grabovac, I., Mistry, A., Stubbs, B., & Smith, L. (2020). A comparative meta-analysis of the prevalence of exercise addiction in adults with and without indicated eating disorders. Eating and Weight Disorders - Studies on Anorexia, Bulimia and Obesity. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40519-019-00842-1