Aggressiveness, anger, and hostility in eating disorders

Abstract 

Objective

Despite evidence of a link between the behavioral and cognitive dimensions of aggressiveness and eating disorders, only few studies have tested this relation empirically.

Methods

A total of 112 female patients with anorexia nervosa (n = 61) or bulimia nervosa (n = 51) and 631 young girls attending 7 high schools in the same health district as the patients (northeast Italy) were invited to fill in a set of self-report instruments including the Eating Attitudes Test, the Bulimic Investigatory Test of Edinburgh, the Body Attitudes Test, and the Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire (AQ).

Results

In both healthy controls and patients, scores on the measures of eating disorder symptoms were positively related to the scores on the AQ: the strength of the association did not differ between healthy controls and patients. However, patients diagnosed with eating disorders were not more likely to disclose a propensity to aggression than the healthy controls drawn from the community: patients with anorexia nervosa scored lower than controls on the physical aggression and on the verbal aggression subscales of the AQ (P < .05). On the other hand, patients with bulimia nervosa scored higher than controls on the anger subscale of the AQ (P < .05) but did not differ from them on the other subscales of the questionnaire.

Conclusions

The results confirm the higher propensity to anger in patients with bulimia nervosa; in patients with anorexia nervosa, difficulties in expressing anger and outward-directed aggressiveness can be a prevailing feature. The younger age of controls and exclusive reliance on self-report measures might have concealed some differences between patients and community subjects.