Caught in the Bulimic Trap: Do Eating Disorders Reflect Addictive Behavior?

Finally, surprisingly little is known about the factors determining the incidence of BN, and we fill this gap in the literature. We find that BN behavior is decreasing in income and parent's education; moreover when race plays a role, African Americans are more likely to exhibit bulimic behavior. These results stand in stark contrast to the popular conceptions about BN. Based on evidence here and in Goeree, Ham and Iorio (2008a), we argue that this disparity occurs because affluent white teenage girls are much more likely to be diagnosed with BN conditional on having it. This in turn has the important implication that much greater outreach for treatment of BN be made to non-Whites and individuals from low income families.