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Abstract
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OBJECTIVE: This study compared 55 women with active bulimic symptoms, 18 in remission from a bulimic eating disorder, and 31 who showed no evidence of a past or present eating disorder, on selected personality and psychiatric features.
METHOD: Discriminant function analyses were used to isolate dimensions that differentiated active patients from patients in remission, and controls (i.e., that would logically constitute "state"-related disturbances), and then dimensions that differentiated clinical cases (whether active or in remission) from non-eating-disordered controls (i.e., that might reflect stable trait pathology associated with bulimic syndromes, whether active or not).
RESULTS: Measures of depression, suicidality, and anxiety loaded significantly on the first function (differentiating active bingers from all other cases), whereas narcissism differentiated both clinical groups from non-eating-disordered controls.
DISCUSSION: In light of theoretical and empirical evidence stressing the etiological role of narcissistic disturbances in bulimic syndromes, we interpret our findings as suggesting that narcissim may be a common trait characteristic (persisting even after remission of bulimic symptoms) in those who develop bulimic eating syndromes. Alternatively, depression, suicidality, and anxiety appear to be state-dependent features that resolve in many cases, along with remission of bulimic symptoms. We discuss various clinical and theoretical implications of our findings.
Language: en |