A report of 497 women hospitalized for treatment of bulimia nervosa

Abstract

Abstract The majority of psychotherapy outcome studies of bulimia nervosa have used outpatient samples. Less is known about the bulimia nervosa patient who requires inpatient treatment. We present data on 497 women treated at an inpatient facility for women with eating disorders along with preliminary 1–3-year follow-up on a subset of the women. Psychometric data suggest that, prior to treatment, the women were of above-average severity in terms of eating disorder and psychiatric symptomatology. Clinically and statistically significant changes in these symptoms were observed during treatment. At follow-up approximately 61% of the women appeared no longer to meet the diagnostic criteria for bulimia nervosa. There was no worsening or further improvement following the first year of follow-up. Results are compared with previous reports of inpatient bulimia nervosa patients.