Eating disorder symptoms in affective disorder.

Patients with Major Affective Disorder (MAD), Secondary Depression, Panic Disorder, and bulimia with and without MAD, were given the Eating Disorder Inventory, the Beck Depression Inventory, and the General Behavior Inventory at presentation. It was found that patients with MAD have a triad of eating disorder symptoms: a disturbance in interoceptive awareness, the sense of ineffectiveness, and a tendency toward bulimia. The data supported the concept that the sense of ineffectiveness is secondary to major depression. A disturbance in interoceptive awareness exists independently in bulimia nervosa and in MAD providing a common diathesis from which bulimia may arise given family and social pressure. Bulimics with MAD do not respond to treatment as readily as those without MAD. It is recomended that these two groups be treated separately.