A comparison of purging and nonpurging normal weight bulimics

Bulimia can be separated into two major subtypes according to whether the individual does or does not couple binge eating with purging via vomiting or laxative abuse after eating. Twenty normal-weight purging bulimic women were compared with 20 normal-weight nonpurging bulimic women and 20 normal-weight controls. Compared with the nonpurging bulimics, the purging bulimics showed greater anxiety about eating, disturbance on standardized measures of eating attitudes and disorders, body size distortion and desire to be thin, and disturbance on behavioral trait scales of the Eating Disorders Inventory. The nonpurging bulimics were never significantly more maladjusted than the purging bulimics on any measure although by comparison to normal controls, they exhibited more anxiety about eating, disturbance on eating disorder questionnaires, and depressive symptoms and lower self-esteem. These results suggest that bulimia with purging is associated with a greater amount of psychopathology than bulimia without purging in normal-weight women.