Comparisons of Men with Full or Partial Eating Disorders, Men Without Eating Disorders, and Women with Eating Disorders in the Community

Objective: The authors compared 62 men who met all or most of the DSM-III-R criteria for eating disorders with 212 women who had similar eating disorders and 3,769 men who had no eating disorders on a wide variety of clinical and historical variables.

Method: The groups of subjects were derived from a community epidemiologic survey performed in the province of Ontario that used the World Health Organization's Composite International Diagnostic Interview.

Results: Men with eating disorders were very similar to women with eating disorders on most variables. Men with eating disorders showed higher rates of psychiatric comorbidity and more psychosocial morbidity than men without eating disorders.

Conclusions: These results confirm the clinical similarities between men with eating disorders and women with eating disorders. They also reveal that both groups suffer similar psychosocial morbidity. Men with eating disorders show a wide range of differences from men without eating disorders; the extent to which these differences are effects of the illness or possible risk factors for the occurrence of these illnesses in men is not clear.