Prior use of extreme weight-control behaviors in a community sample of women with binge eating disorder or subthreshold binge eating disorder : a descriptive study

The prior occurrence of regular extreme weight control behaviors was examined in a community sample of women (n = 27) with binge eating disorder (BED) or subthreshold BED. Approximately two thirds of participants (65.4%) reported the prior use of either purging at least weekly or nonpurging behaviors three or more times per week, for a period of 3 months or more, whereas 38.5% of participants reported either purging at least twice weekly or nonpurging behaviors five or more times per week. Comparatively few participants (11.1%) had ever met formal diagnostic criteria for bulimia nervosa. Considerable overlap between disorders characterized by binge eating in the absence of extreme weight control behaviors and those characterized by extreme weight-control behaviours in the absence of binge eating may be apparent when a longitudinal perspective is taken. Caution needs to be exercised in drawing conclusions concerning the extent of this overlap based on any one operational definition of the term "regular extreme weight-control behaviors".