Substance use among women with eating disorders.

OBJECTIVE: The results of past research suggest that bulimics are more likely than anorexics to engage in substance use, and that binge eating and/or purging may be an indicator of increased likelihood of substance use. We further investigated substance use among women with eating disorders.

METHOD: We compared women with anorexia nervosa (n = 134) to women with bulimia nervosa (n = 320) with regard to history of substance use and investigated potential relationships between eating disorder symptom presentation and substance use.

RESULTS: Even after controlling for age and eating disorder symptom severity, women with bulimia nervosa were more likely than those with anorexia nervosa to have used alcohol, amphetamines, barbituates, marijuana, tranquilizers, and cocaine. Independent of diagnostic category, severity of caloric restriction was predictive of amphetamine use, severity of binge eating was predictive of tranquilizer use, and severity of purging was predictive of alcohol, cocaine, and cigarette use.

DISCUSSION: Results are discussed in relation to the results of past research and with an emphasis on the importance of considering eating disorder symptom presentation in addition to formal eating disorder diagnosis.