The relationship between Eating Disorder Examination questionnaire subscale scores and substance use severity in women with comorbid PTSD and substance use disorders.

Eating disorders (EDs) and substance use disorders (SUDs) commonly co-occur, especially in conjunction with PTSD, yet little is known about ED symptoms in women presenting to addiction treatment programs. This ancillary investigation of data from National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network (CTN) study CTN-0015 (“Women’s Treatment for Trauma and Substance Use Disorders”) hypothesized an association between severity of ED and SUD symptoms in a sample of treatment seeking women with comorbid SUD and PTSD. Participants were 122 women from four treatment sites participating in the original CTN protocol. The Eating Disorder Examination-Questionnaire (EDE-Q) and the Addiction Severity Index (ASI) were administered at baseline. Scores on the Eating, Weight, and Shape Concern subscales of the EDE-Q were significantly correlated with past 30 day cocaine, methadone, other opiate, and polysubstance abuse. All 4 EDE-Q subscale scores were significantly correlated with the number of days experiencing drug problems in the past 30 days. There were also significant correlations with number of years of use of opiates, hallucinogens, and sedative/hypnotics.

Conclusions: These findings suggest a positive relationship between addiction severity and eating disorder symptoms, particularly those involving weight and shape concerns. Assessing and addressing eating disorder symptoms in addiction treatment programs may improve the treatment needs of this patient subgroup.

Related protocols: CTN-0015