Repetitive behaviours in anorexia nervosa, autism, and obsessive-compulsive personality disorder

Restricted and repetitive behaviours and interests (RRBs) greatly contribute to the burden of psychiatric illness for the individual and his or her family. While as a class the presence of RRBs may evidence continuity, the form of the behaviour may change. Further, a given individual may exhibit a multitude of RRBs that compromise different areas of functioning. In eating disorders, individuals may exhibit RRB before eating disorder diagnosis. These behaviours may compromise or complicate treatment, and they may persist following eating disorder improvement. Strategies to organize these behaviours within an individual may facilitate the efficiency of management, while searching for parallel manifestations in RRBs across diagnostic syndromes may guide novel hypothesis generation on underlying biological mechanisms. This article illustrates this strategy by examining potential symptom overlap in the expression of RRBs in individuals with anorexia nervosa, obsessive-compulsive personality disorder, and autism.