The relationship between serum cholesterol and the human psyche has been recently often investigated. A relationship between total serum cholesterol and results of psychological tests and total serum cholesterol and subjective evaluation of the clinical state of the patient done by the physician was sought. This is a retrospective study using the standard tests performed in hospitalised patients with mental anorexia (MA) - total serum cholesterol, psychological questionnaire (the High School Personality Questionnaire - HSPQ) and CGI (Clinical Global Impression). The sample comprises 18 female MA patients (F50.0 according to IDC-10) within the age range from 12 to 17 years. We correlated total serum cholesterol with the results of the HSPQ and total serum cholesterol with CGI in each patient. No direct correlation between serum levels of total cholesterol at the beginning of hospitalisation and any of the psychological characteristics included in the HSPQ was found using the Spearman’s correlation coefficient. When the whole sample was divided into 2 sub. samples according to numeric values of the HSPQ, a significant difference (p < 0.05) was found between the total serum cholesterol levels in calm patients (lower levels) and excitable ones (higher levels). There was also a relationship between CGI and total serum cholesterol - a poor clinical state correlated with higher serum cholesterol and vice versa.

        Key words: total serum cholesterol, anorexia nervosa, HSPQ, CGI.