Relationship of Childhood Sexual Abuse and Eating Disorders

Objective: To review the literature that has examined the relationship between childhood sexual abuse and the eating disorders.

Method: Each of the five authors reviewed all identified empirical studies to be certain that inclusion/exclusion criteria were met. Two teams of raters then independently reviewed each study to determine whether it supported any of a series of six hypotheses that had been tested in this literature.

Results: This review indicates that childhood sexual abuse is a nonspecific risk factor for bulimia nervosa, particularly when there is psychiatric comorbidity. There is some indication that childhood sexual abuse is more strongly associated with bulimic disorders than restricting anorexia, but it does not appear to be associated with severity of the disturbance.

Conclusion: Childhood sexual abuse is a risk factor for bulimia nervosa with significant comorbidity. Further study of the nature of this relationship is warranted.