Bipolar Disorder: Open Access
Open Access

Abstract

Eating Disorders and Cyclothymic Temperament: A Cross-Sectional Study on Tunisian Students

Ines Feki*, Rim Sellami, Sameh Chouayakh, Uta Ouali, Elie Hantouche and Jawaher Masmoudi

Purpose: The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of eating disorders in a sample of young Tunisians and to study their links with cyclothymic temperament.

Subjects and methods: We conducted a cross-sectional, descriptive and analytical study on 107 students from the Faculty of Medicine of Sfax, Tunisia. For assessment of eating disorders, we used the Eating Attitude Test with 40 items, in its validated Tunisian-Arabic version. For evaluation of cyclothymic temperament, the Arabic version of the Temperament Evaluation of Memphis, Pisa, Paris and San-Diego auto questionnaire (TEMPS-A) was used.

Results: Prevalence of eating disorders was 21.5% in our sample. The percentage of students who had a cyclothymic temperament was 25.2%. We found a statistically significant correlation between eating disorders and cyclothymic temperament (p=0.000). Cyclothymic temperament increased by 3.75 the risk of developing eating disorders in female students.

Conclusion: Our results corroborate the tendency to a more homogenous repartition of eating disorders worldwide. We found a positive correlation between eating disorders and cyclothymic temperament, which confirms the data of the recent, very scarce literature on the subject.