MERYCISM OR RUMINATION DISORDER - A HISTORICAL INVESTIGATION AND CURRENT ASSESSMENT

Background. In the 'fashionable' field of eating disorders, there has been a notable gap in the historiography of rumination, allowing consi derable scope for constructing a comprehensive historical profile of t his disorder. Method. A wide-ranging examination of printed material, both etymological and medical, backed by a Medline computer search, un covered extensive sources, some of considerable rarity, including case reports from the early 17th century onwards. Extracted data focused o n incidence, sex distribution, age range, outcome and causation, and t he findings are discussed in relation to diagnostic criteria in DSM-II I-R and ICD-10. Results. While confirming the frequency of rumination in infants and the mentally retarded, the study demonstrated, particul arly, the need to recognise its occurrence in normal adults, occasiona lly as a collateral behaviour in anorexia and bulimia nervosa, and sug gested that its prevalence, distorted by secrecy, exceeded estimated l evels. Conclusions. In future reviews of classification, existing anom alies and inadequacies in the status and description of rumination wou ld benefit from integrating some of the historical conclusions.