Eating disorders among patients incarcerated only for repeated shoplifting: a retrospective quasi-case-control study in a medical prison in Japan

Shoplifting is a serious problem among patients with eating disorders. For more than a decade, we have treated many patients with eating disorders incarcerated in Hachioji Medical Prison only for repeated shoplifting.

We analyzed the prison records and medical records of female psychiatric patients transferred to Hachioji Medical Prison between 2002 and 2011. Based on the offense listed at the time of sentencing, we extracted a shoplifting group and a drug-offense group from among all patients with eating disorders. One patient from the former group who had used substances and two from the latter group who had never shoplifted were excluded from the study. The groups had 41 and 14 patients, respectively. A control group comprised patients with other mental disorders (n = 34). We compared eating disorder histories and subtypes, weight changes, comorbidities, life histories, past behavioral problems, and clinical behavioral problems among the three groups.

The shoplifting group exhibited less impulsive behavior, substance abuse, antisocial features, borderline personality disorder, and past bulimia than did the drug-offense and control groups. The shoplifting group had higher educational achievement and steadier employment; however, their eating disorder histories and interpersonal dysfunction were more severe, and they had a higher psychiatric treatment dropout rate. There were also significant relationships with low body weight, anorexia nervosa-restricting type, obsessive–compulsive behaviors, and obsessive–compulsive personality disorder in the shoplifting group. During the clinical course, food refusal, excessive exercise, food hoarding, and falsification of dietary intake amounts were more frequently observed in the shoplifting group. Conversely, drug requests and occurrences of self-harm were less frequent in the shoplifting group than in the drug-offense group.

Although these results may be associated with specific characteristics of patients with eating disorders in the medical prison setting, we concluded that the repeated shoplifting by these patients is unrelated to antisocial or impulsive characteristics but is deeply rooted in these patients’ severe and undertreated eating disorder psychopathology. Strong supportive treatment should be considered for patients with eating disorders who develop shoplifting behaviors. Further research is required to elucidate the mechanisms responsible for the relationship between shoplifting and eating disorders.