Personality Traits and Disorders Associated with Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa, and Binge Eating Disorder

TL;DR: In 1689, Thomas Morton reported two cases of anorexia nervosa (AN): one involving a “sad and anxious” girl who “poured over books,” another involving a young boy prone to “studying too hard” as mentioned in this paper.

Abstract: In 1689, Thomas Morton reported two cases of anorexia nervosa (AN): one involving a “sad and anxious” girl who “poured over books,” another involving a young boy prone to “studying too hard” (1). With these reports, Morton not only introduced AN to the medical literature; he introduced the concept that AN frequently co-occurs with perfectionistic or compulsive personality traits. Likewise, 19th century observations on bulimia nervosa (BN) documented instability of mood and behavior (2). All of this says that there is a history behind the association between eating disorders (EDs) and problematic personality tendencies.