Complex cases and comorbidities between personality and eating disorders are tricky challanges for the clinician. Indeed, patients live their experience and (rightly!) have little interest in psychiatry, psychopathology and psychotherapy manuals. The condition of a single disorder is rare. And even in the case of complex symptoms such as eating disorders it is important to consider the functioning of the personality as a whole.
Journal of Clinical Psychology has recently accepted a paper I worked on together with an amazing international team: Veronica Cavalletti (Tages Charity, Florence), Francesco Gazzillo (University of La Sapienza, Rome), Martin Brüne (Bochum University, Bochum), and Paul Hewitt (University of British Columbia, Vancouver). Here we present a clear-cut example of complex cases and comorbidities between personality and eating disorders.
In this case study we present the course of the psychotherapy of Myriam, a 19-year old female with a severe personality disorder and comorbid eating disorder. During the initial assessment she reported high levels of neuroticism that parallel the diagnosis of obsessive-compulsive personality disorder, borderline personality disorder, and anorexia nervosa. Myriam showed a severely impaired personality functioning defined by perfectionism, self-criticism, interpersonal guilt and overcontrol. Her daily experience was shaped by a self-recriminative inner dialogue associated with maladaptive patterns in the form of food, water and sleep restrictions, self-harm behaviors, and suicidal ideation. She accessed an integrative treatment based on individual (Evolutionary Systems Therapy) and group psychotherapy (Mindful Compassion for Perfectionism). At the end of 14-month intervention she remitted from all the categorical diagnoses and showed reliable changes in several measures. These outcomes were maintained at 3-month follow-up. We describe the integrative conceptualization based on Myriam’s perfectionistic self-recrimination patterns, and the consequent treatment that targeted these patterns rather than focusing on symptom reduction exclusively.
The picture presents the conceptualization of the client based on the Evolutionary Systems Therapy.
For those interested in, the preprint of the paper is freely available and and the published version will have only minimal differences due to production process:
Cheli, S., Cavalletti, V., Gazzillo, F., Brüne, M., & Hewitt P.L. (2024). I don’t deserve anything good: Perfectionistic self-recrimination in a case of comorbid personality and eating disorder. Journal of Clinical Psychology. Preprint available on Authorea, July 16, 2024. https://doi.org/10.22541/au.172114929.99232229/v1 (DOI: 10.1002/jclp.23753).