Impact of Eating Disorder Type on General Population Perceptions of Stigma and Likelihood of Comorbidity

Abstract

Eating disorders carry a significant risk of mortality, necessitating further research. Previous work has examined how stigma influences treatment seeking in other mental health conditions, creating a potential area for improving disordered eating outcomes. Additionally, prior meta-analyses have discovered high comorbidity of other mental health diagnoses with disordered eating. Some work has attempted to examine the perception of comorbid mental health problems alongside eating disorders, but this construct has not been studied in depth within general populations. To date, no work has simultaneously examined stigmatization and knowledge of common mental health problems with disordered eating in this population. This study sought to examine how stigmatizing attitudes and lay beliefs about comorbidity differ by eating disorder type in a general population. We displayed two vignettes, each depicting a college student with anorexia nervosa (AN) and bulimia nervosa (BN). Participants then completed a self-report measure of stigma and rated the likelihood that each student had four mental health diagnoses. AN was rated as significantly more stigmatized than BN. Participants considered the AN student to be significantly more likely to have obsessive-compulsive disorder, while they considered the BN student to be significantly more likely to have depression. No significant differences were found for anxiety or attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. This work demonstrated that significant between-disorder differences exist both in stigmatization and lay beliefs about comorbid diagnoses, providing an important initial insight into general population attitudes. Future studies examining how lay beliefs about disordered eating develop and interact with stigma are warranted.