SEASONALITY OF SYMPTOMS IN ANOREXIA AND BULIMIA-NERVOSA

Objective: Recent research has suggested that a large proportion of pa tients with bulimia nervosa have seasonal (winter) worsening of mood s ymptoms similar to seasonal affective disorder (SAD). The objectives o f this study were to determine the specificity of this finding in anor exia and bulimia nervosa, and to further delineate the seasonal mood a nd earing patterns in bulimia nervosa. Method: A modified Seasonal Pat tern Assessment Questionnaire (SPAQ) was administered to consecutive f emale patients assessed at an Eating Disorders Clinic with DSM-III-R d iagnoses of bulimia nervosa (BN, N = 60) and anorexia nervosa (AN, N = 31), and to female nonclinical comparison subjects (NC, N = 50). Resu lts: The BN group had higher global seasonality scores and more presum ptive diagnoses of SAD than the other two groups; the AN patients, whe ther they had the restricting or binge eating/purging subtype, did not differ from the NC subjects. Thirty-two percent of the identified sea sonal BN patients did not have parallel worsening of mood and eating s ymptoms in the same season. Discussion: These results suggest that sea sonality of symptoms is specific to BN and that there may be separate mechanisms for the seasonality of mood and eating symptoms in some BN patients. (C) 1996 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.