Duration of bulimia nervosa and symptom progression: a retrospective analysis of treatment-seeking bulimics.

Severity of bulimia nervosa upon presentation for treatment may be influenced by duration and age of onset of bulimic behaviors. This hypothesis was investigated in a retrospective study by correlating duration of bulimia and age of onset with sets of variables measuring the primary symptoms and other psychopathology associated with bulimia nervosa. The experimental design was cross-sectional. The sample included 153 women who had been diagnosed with bulimia nervosa. Canonical correlations indicated that younger age of onset and longer duration were associated with more severe bulimic symptoms and increased body image distortion. Anorexic symptoms were reduced over time, however, and weight gain (at a rate of about 0.54 Kg [1.2 lbs] per year) was correlated with duration of bulimic behaviors. Also, older age of onset and longer duration were associated with increasing social introversion. These findings were interpreted as supportive of the hypothesis that younger age of onset and longer duration of bulimic behaviors are associated with more severe bulimia and general psychopathology. Though limited by the retrospective nature of the study, these results substantiate the need for longitudinal investigations of bulimia nervosa.