IS THERE A RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN BULIMIA-NERVOSA AND HAZARDOUS ALCOHOL-USE

Objective: The present study investigates the relationship between haz ardous alcohol consumption and bulimia nervosa in a clinical populatio n. Method: The Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) was a dministered to two groups of female subjects: patients with bulimia ne rvosa (n = 30) and nonbulimic controls (n = 15). These two groups were further subdivided on the basis of personality disorder as assessed b y the Personality Disorder Examination (PDE), a comprehensive intervie w covering all of the criteria for the 13 DSM-III-R Axis II disorders. The bulimic patients were referred to a dieting disorders clinic affi liated with the University of Sydney. All met DSM-III-R criteria for b ulimia nervosa and all had Body Mass Indices (BMIs) greater than 19. T he nonbulimic control group were recruited from an undergraduate psych ology course. All subjects were given the Bulimic Investigatory Test, Edinburgh (BITE) and the Eating Disorders Inventory-2 (EDI-2). Results : 66.7% (8/12) of personality disordered bulimic patients were drinkin g at hazardous levels whereas 61.1% (11/18) of bulimic patients withou t a personality disorder were doing likewise. Furthermore, 35.7% (5/14 ) of the nonbulimic controls without personality disorders were drinki ng at hazardous levels and the only control subject with a personality disorder was doing likewise. The association between personality diso rder diagnosis and hazardous alcohol use in the bulimic sample just fa iled to reach significance at the 5% level (chi(1,upper .05)(2) = 3.84 p = .052). No association between Axis 1 diagnosis of bulimia nervosa and hazardous alcohol use was found (chi(1,upper .05)(2) = 3.84 p = . 52). Discussion: The results of the present study suggest we may need to rethink the relationship between hazardous alcohol use and bulimia nervosa reported in the literature, as it may be an artifact of the re lationship between personality disorder and hazardous alcohol consumpt ion. Further research is necessary to clarify this issue. (C) 1998 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.