The authors designed a study to determine the prevalence of "hidden"
eating disorders among a large group of hospitalized psychiatric patients.
Of 146 patients surveyed, 13.8% currently had eating disorders diagnosed
according to DSM-III criteria: 7.3% had bulimia, 3.6% had anorexia nervosa,
and 2.9% had an atypical disorder. Eighty percent of the bulimic patients
and all of the patients with an atypical disorder had not been so
identified by hospital diagnosis. Eating-disordered patients tended to have
concurrent diagnoses of affective or personality disorders.
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