Prognostic Factors in Outpatient Psychotherapy of Bulimia

Little is known about prognostic factors in the treatment of bulimic patients. In the context of an ongoing study we looked at 1-year symptomatic outcome of 37 outpatients fulfilling DSM-III-R criteria for bulimia nervosa in relation to a variety of measures at first assessment. These included multiple measures of depression, measures of borderline personality disorder, a personality inventory, a symptom checklist and information about the history and the severity of the illness. Results add evidence to the importance of personality variables in predicting outcome: patients with high scores on the Borderline Syndrome Index indicating a severe disturbance tend to have poorer symptomatic outcome, especially when they also experience themselves as dominant (Giessen-Test). Other factors, including abuse of alcohol and history of anorexia did not allow prediction of outcome.