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Ego Strength, Object Relations, and Life Events as Outcome Predictors in Restricting Anorexia Nervosa and Normal-Weight Bulimia Nervosa

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Abstract

There is still much to be discovered regarding factors that predict outcome in eating disorders (Szmukler and Russell 1986; Sohlberg et al. 1989). The present project addressed this issue and was conceived as a traditional follow-up study with some important modifications. By “traditional” we mean selection of a group of patients who have applied for help during a set time period, the follow-up of them after several years, and no tight controls on treatment. The latter feature is often necessary either because the study is retrospective or because efforts required to control treatment type, quality and duration are prohibitive (Gowers et al. 1989). Our design was prospective but treatment decisions were made on clinical grounds and we settled for post hoc comparison of results among those who did and did not receive formal therapy.

This study was supported by grants from the Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation. We thank Börje Rosmark, M.Sc., who made half of the interviews and shared responsibility for project initiation. During the preparation of this manuscript the first author (SS) was a Visiting Research Scholar at UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute with financial support from the Sasakawa Young Leaders’ Fellowship Foundation.

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© 1992 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Sohlberg, S., Norring, C. (1992). Ego Strength, Object Relations, and Life Events as Outcome Predictors in Restricting Anorexia Nervosa and Normal-Weight Bulimia Nervosa. In: Herzog, W., Deter, HC., Vandereycken, W. (eds) The Course of Eating Disorders. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-76634-3_22

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-76634-3_22

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-76636-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-76634-3

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