Clinical and non-clinical binges.

A study was conducted to determine if, and in what respects, clinical binges (reported by bulimic subjects) are different from non-clinical binges (reported by a non-clinical population). Furthermore, the study tested whether the DSM-III-R criteria and other variables that are retrospectively claimed to be defining characteristics indeed differentiate binges from non-binge eating episodes. Clinical binges appeared to differ from non-clinical binges as to amount of calories ingested and duration. With respect to subjective experience, clinical and non-clinical binges did not differ. The DSM-III-R criteria for binge eating discriminate clinical and non-clinical binges quite well from non-binges. With the addition of other seemingly important variables, binges are not discriminated better from non-binges than with the DSM-III-R variables alone. It is argued that the difference between pathological binge eating and non-clinical binge eating is mainly a matter of severity.