PROGNOSTIC VALUE OF PRETREATMENT SOCIAL ADAPTATION IN BULIMIA-NERVOSA

We evaluated several indices of pretreatment social adaptation (social and vocational adjustment, DSM-III-R Axis-V ratings, and ''object-rel ations'' capacities) as predictors of the response of 44 completers of a multimodal therapy for bulimia nervosa. Response was assessed using standard measures of eating and psychiatric symptoms. Hierarchical re gressions revealed that pretreatment social adjustment explained subst antial (and significant) proportions of variance in posttreatment bing e/purge symptoms, after variance associated with (a) initial severity of eating symptoms and (b) concurrent psychiatric symptoms (at posttre atment) was accounted for. Hence, social adjustment emerged as a somew hat specific predictor of response of bulimic behaviors. Possible clin ical implications of this apparent predictive effect are discussed. (C ) 1993 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.