ASSESSING THE SPECIFIC PSYCHOPATHOLOGY OF BINGE-EATING DISORDER PATIENTS - INTERVIEW OR SELF-REPORT

Research addressing the assessment of binge eating and associated eati ng disorder psychopathology has steadily increased in recent years. Fe w studies have examined the relationship between the various assessmen t methods. This study compared an investigator-based interview, the Ea ting Disorder Examination (EDE), with a self-report version of that in terview, the EDE-Q. Fifty-two individuals (six men and 46 women) with binge eating disorder (BED) completed both instruments. Modest-to-good agreement and significant correlations (P < 0.0001) were found betwee n the two methods on all four subscales assessing specific eating diso rder psychopathology (i.e., Restraint, Eating Concern, Weight Concern, and Shape Concern subscales). However, higher levels of disturbance w ere consistently reported on the EDE-Q than the EDE interview. The two methods were not significantly or reliably related to one another whe n assessing binge eating. This may be due it part to the difficulty in herent in identifying binges in subjects with BED. Examination of indi vidual item scores suggest that it might be possible to improve the pe rformance of the EDE-Q by clarifying the: definitions of certain compl ex features, although this should not be at the expense of compromisin g th: practical utility of its self-report format. (C) 1997 Elsevier S cience Ltd.