Food cravings discriminate between anorexia and bulimia nervosa. Implications for "success" versus "failure" in dietary restriction.

Food cravings are subjective, motivational states thought to induce binge eating among eating disorder patients. This study compared food cravings across eating disorders. Women (N=135) diagnosed with anorexia nervosa, restrictive (ANR) or binge-purging (ANBP) types, or bulimia nervosa, non-purging (BNNP) or purging (BNP) types completed measures of food cravings. Discriminant analysis yielded two statistically significant functions. The first function differentiated between all the four group pairs except ANBP and BNNP, with levels of various food-craving dimensions successively increasing for ANR, ANBP, BNNP, and BNP participants. The second function differentiated between ANBP and BNNP participants. Overall, the functions improved classification accuracy above chance level (44% fewer errors). The findings suggest that cravings are more strongly associated with loss of control over eating than with dietary restraint tendencies.