Am J Psychiatry 1987; 144:1283-1287
Copyright © 1987 by American Psychiatric Association
A controlled study of lifetime prevalence of affective and other psychiatric disorders in bulimic outpatients
JI Hudson, HG Pope Jr, D Yurgelun-Todd, JM Jonas and FR Frankenburg
Epidemiology Laboratory, McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA 02178.
The authors used structured diagnostic interviews to assess the lifetime
prevalence of psychiatric disorders, by DSM-III criteria, among 70 women:
51 outpatients with active bulimia and 19 nonpatient subjects with remitted
bulimia. Comparison groups consisted of 24 female outpatients with major
depression and 28 nonpsychiatric control subjects. The active and remitted
bulimic subjects closely resembled each other, with high lifetime rates of
major affective disorder, anxiety disorders, and substance use disorders.
Atypical depression was equally common among subjects with major affective
disorder in all groups. These results are consistent with previous studies
suggesting a phenomenologic relationship between bulimia and major
affective disorder.
