Busting the bulimia 'epidemic'.

A number of recent media and medical reports suggest that bulimia--an eating disorder that involves bingeing and purging--is reaching epidemic proportions among young women, particularly those attending college.

These accounts, however, vastly overestimate the problem, according to Kathleen J. Hart and Thomas H. Ollendick of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (VPI) in Blacksburg. A large number of women report going on an eating binge at least once, but less than 5 percent have other symptoms that characterize bulimia, say the researchers in the July AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRY.

Two samples of women were given questionnaires on their eating behavior. The first group of 139 subjects was obtained from a total of 300 women, ages 18 to 30, employed in a large banking institution and contacted through interoffice mail. Another 234 women were recruited for the study at VPI and were, on average, several years younger than the working women.

At least one episode of binge eating was reported by 41 percent of the working women and 69 percent of the university women. Yet only 1 percent of the working women and 5 percent of the university women had three other markers of bulimia: depressed and self-deprecating thoughts following bingeing, fears of not being able to stop eating voluntarily and self-induced vomiting on a weekly basis.

"Although binge eating is not uncommon among women between 18 and 30 years of age, the prevalence of the syndrome of bulimia is significantly less common," conclude the investigators.

Behaviors associated with bulimia occur more frequently among university women when compared with working women, they note. The reasons for the difference are unclear, say the researchers, and any speculations are limited by the fact that 54 percent of the working women contacted for the study did not complete the questionnaires.