OCD and eating disorders

It is both restrictive anorexia and anorexia bulimia.

Anorexia presents certain semiological features * close to OCD:

it consists of the excessive and obsessive fear of gaining weight. This fear generates an anxious state at the origin of extremely ritualized behaviors with the objective of sorting food or counting calories.

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This pathology is also accompanied by avoidance behaviors which consist in limiting food intake as much as possible.

The presence of the food theme in terms of the problem of weight and not of contamination excludes the diagnosis of OCD.

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On the other hand, TCA (eating disorders) are comorbid pathologies of OCD. Recent studies show a lifetime prevalence varying from 4.7 to 9.6% of TCA associated with OCD. Very often, the diagnosis of OCD predates the diagnosis of TCA.

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The presence of OCD in subjects suffering from TCA is a factor of poor prognosis: the diagnosis of OCD in anorexics multiplies by 3.5 the risk of depression.