SYMPTOM OVERLAP BETWEEN OCD AND BULIMIA-NERVOSA

There have been several suggestions in the literature that obsessive-c ompulsive disorder (OCD) and the eating disorders anorexia and bulimia nervosa may be related. The present study compared 50 female OCD pati ents, 69 normal-weight female bulimia nervosa patients, and 28 normal women without a history of an eating disorder, dieting behavior, or a psychiatric disorder on a variety of psychometric measures of obsessiv eness and compulsivity, depression, and anxiety. Statistical analysis confirmed that on the OC subsection of the SCL-90-R and on the Maudsle y Obsessive Compulsive Inventory, OCD patients scored higher than both normal volunteers and bulimics, and bulimics scored higher than norma l volunteers. On the measure of depression, the depression subscale of the SCL-90-R, bulimic and OCD patients scored similarly to one anothe r, and greater than did normal controls. In the bulimic patients, scor es on the bulimia subscale of the EDI correlated with both measures of OC symptomatology. A subgroup of the bulimic patients participated in a six-week supervised inpatient treatment program. After six weeks of enforced abstinence from bingeing and vomiting, patients demonstrated a significant decrease in obsessionality and compulsivity as measured by both the SCL-OC and the MOC, but no change in their Hamilton Depre ssion Rating scores. However, their scores on the SCL-depression subsc ale did decrease significantly. These results suggest that bulimic pat ients score significantly greater than controls on ratings of obsessio nality (MOC, SCL-90-R-OC), and that obsessionality responds to effecti ve nonpharmacological treatments for bulimia.