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Elevated pre‐morbid weights in bulimic individuals are usually surpassed post‐morbidly: Implications for perpetuation of the disorder
Author(s) -
Shaw Jena A.,
Herzog David B.,
Clark Vicki L.,
Berner Laura A.,
Eddy Kamryn T.,
Franko Debra L.,
Lowe Michael R.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
international journal of eating disorders
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.785
H-Index - 138
eISSN - 1098-108X
pISSN - 0276-3478
DOI - 10.1002/eat.20985
Subject(s) - retrospective cohort study , psychology , pediatrics , weight loss , morbidly obese , body weight , medicine , psychiatry , surgery , obesity
Objective: To determine how often patients diagnosed with bulimia nervosa (BN) surpass their highest pre‐morbid weight during the course of their disorder. Method: The weight histories of individuals with BN were determined using retrospective weight data (Study 1) and combined retrospective/prospective data (Study 2). Results: Retrospective analyses indicated that 59.0% ( n = 46) and 61.8% ( n = 110), respectively, reported that their highest weight was reached after developing BN. In Study 2, 35.3% of participants superseded their highest pre‐enrollment weights during 8 years of follow‐up, and 71.6% reached a post‐morbid highest weight before remission. Across studies, the primary difference between patients who did and did not reach their highest weight post‐morbidly was that those who did had an earlier age of onset and longer duration of BN. Discussion: Findings are discussed in terms of possible links between BN and weight‐gain proneness, weight fluctuation across the course of BN, and implications for treating BN. © 2012 by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (Int J Eat Disord 2012)