Attempts to understand the pathogenesis and course of eating disorders have increasingly included investigation of stressful life events. We report a prospective study in which major life events were assessed 1, 2, and 3 years after the patient's initial presentation to a university hospital psychiatric department. Using a combined questionnaire and interview procedure based on items from the Psychiatric Epidemiologic Research Interview, we studied 25 adults with DSM-III-R anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa. Evidence for an influence of life events on improvement was obtained the 1st year. Events explained a substantial 30% of the variability in follow-up status, with analyses taking potential confounds into consideration unable to explain the finding. Also, significant correlations between events and self-rated variables (Eating Disorder Inventory and Beck Depression Inventory) were obtained at one of the follow-ups, but in all, the data did not consistently imply that life events affect the patients' course.
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Sohlberg et al. (1992) studied this question.