Adolescents with bulimic and nonbulimic eating disorders.

Twenty-eight adolescents with eating disorders were analyzed in a study that included a retrospective examination of their hospital records and a letter to their family doctor and the patient. These 28 patients were dieting to lose weight, with nine reporting episodes of overeating and vomiting. The clinical characteristics of the bulimic patients versus the nonbulimic are contrasted. Bulimic patients tended to be older and ill for longer. They had a higher weight score, vomited more, and used laxatives and diet medications more frequently. They threatened suicide more often than nonbulimics and many had been overweight previously. Poor outcome was positively associated with bulimia, longer duration of illness, and older age of presentation, but not with a lower weight during the illness. However, with the exception of the presence of vomiting and being less likely to feel fat, these differences in clinical characteristics between bulimic and nonbulimic groups did not approach the level of statistical significance.