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Review
. 2020 Jul 22:8:36.
doi: 10.1186/s40337-020-00311-6. eCollection 2020.

Family-related non-abuse adverse life experiences occurring for adults diagnosed with eating disorders: a systematic review

Katie Grogan  1 , Diarmuid MacGarry  1 , Jessica Bramham  1 , Mary Scriven  2 , Caroline Maher  2 , Amanda Fitzgerald  1
Affiliations
Review

Family-related non-abuse adverse life experiences occurring for adults diagnosed with eating disorders: a systematic review

Katie Grogan et al. J Eat Disord. .

Abstract

Background: Although previous reviews suggest a strong association between abuse and eating disorders, less is known about non-abuse adverse life experiences, such as parental mental illness or family discord, which occur frequently for this population. The aim of the current study was to identify family-related non-abuse adverse life experiences occurring for adults with eating disorders, and to establish whether they occur for people with anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa or binge-eating disorder more than the general population and other psychiatric populations.

Method: A systematic review of studies focusing on family-related non-abuse adverse life experiences and eating disorders was conducted in accordance with PRISMA guidelines. The search string was applied to four electronic databases including Psycinfo, PubMed/Medline, CINAHL Plus and EMBASE.

Results: Of the 26 studies selected for inclusion, six types of family-related non-abuse adverse life experiences were identified: adverse parenting style; family disharmony; loss of a family member, relative or close person; familial mental health issues; family comments about eating, or shape, weight and appearance; and family disruptions. Findings provided tentative evidence for eating disorder specific (i.e. parental demands and criticism) and non-specific (i.e. familial loss and family disruptions) non-abuse adversities, with findings also suggesting that those with bulimia nervosa and binge-eating disorder were more impacted by loss, family separations and negative parent-child interactions compared to those with anorexia nervosa.

Conclusions: This review provides a clear synthesis of previous findings relating to family-related non-abuse adverse life experiences and eating disorders in adults. Implications for trauma-informed care in clinical practice were discussed (e.g. considering the impact of past life events, understanding the function of ED behaviours, reducing the risk of potential re-traumatisation).

Keywords: Adults; Anorexia nervosa; Binge eating disorders; Bulimia nervosa; Eating disorders; Family adversity; Non-abuse adverse life experiences.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interestsThe authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Flow chart of the study search and selection process
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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