Am J Psychiatry 1988; 145:1000-1002
Copyright © 1988 by American Psychiatric Association
DSM-III, draft DSM-III-R, and the diagnosis and prevalence of bulimia in Australia
DI Ben-Tovim
Department of Psychiatry, Repatriation General Hospital, Bedford Park, South Australia.
A self-report questionnaire for bulimic symptoms was administered to three
different groups of community residents and to patients in a hospital's
weight disorders unit and its dietetics department. The prevalence of
DSM-III bulimia was 12.7% among female community residents, while the
prevalence of draft DSM-III-R bulimia was 1.7%. The questionnaire, scored
to reflect DSM-III, categorized as bulimic large numbers of patients who
were not given that diagnosis by clinicians. The draft DSM-III-R criteria
seemed more closely aligned to clinical experience.
