Bulimia, the syndrome of compulsive binge eating, is a common and often
severe disorder frequently resistant to known therapies. Recent evidence
suggesting a link between bulimia and affective disorder prompted the
authors to perform a double-blind study of imipramine versus placebo with
22 chronically bulimic women. Imipramine was associated with a
significantly reduced frequency of binge eating and with improvement on
several other measures of eating behavior. On 1- to 8-month follow-up, 18
of the 20 treated subjects (90%) had responded to imipramine or a
subsequent antidepressant. This finding augments the growing evidence that
bulimia may be related to affective disorder.Abstract Teaser