COMPARISON OF EATING DISORDER PATIENTS WITH AND WITHOUT COMPULSIVE EXERCISING

Several studies have examined the occurrence of eating disorders in at hletes. However, little has been written about the frequency and pheno menology of compulsive exercising in eating disorder (ED) patients. Gi ven this, we studied a series of 110 patients who presented to the Med ical University of South Carolina Eating Disorders Program and met lif etime DSM-III-R criteria for bulimia nervosa (n = 71), anorexia nervos a (n = 18), or both disorders (n = 21). All patients completed the Dia gnostic Survey of the Eating Disorders (DSED), a self-report measure o f demographic and clinical characteristics including time spent exerci sing daily. Thirty-one (28%) of the 100 patients reported that they ex ercised greater than or equal to 60 min every day (M +/- SD = 105 +/- 48 min) and were defined as compulsive exercisers (CEs). In addition, 3 CE patients with a DSM-III-R diagnosis of eating disorder not otherw ise specified (EDNOS) were included for comparison with non-CEs on a n umber of variables. CEs had significantly greater ratings of body diss atisfaction (p <.01) than non-CEs. Non-CEs were significantly more lik ely than CEs to vomit and use laxatives (p <.01, chi(2)), and they had a higher frequency of binge eating (p <.006, Kruskal-Wallis). There w as a trend for a significantly higher frequency of compulsive exercisi ng in the patients with anorexia nervosa (38.5%) than those with bulim ia nervosa (22.5%) (p less than or equal to.06, chi(2)). (C) 1995 by J ohn Wiley and Sons, Inc.